Northern Lights
by Polar Emperor Odin
Summary: What started as a normal day at school, turns out to be something way different for Jim when he suddenly collapses and wakes up in the world of dinosaurs! Will he be able to get back, and is there a deeper meaning to why he was sent there...
1. All in the past

Chapter 1:

I couldn't help but sighing: What was the point with finishing earlier when the last class for the day was math? When you had to do something so incredibly boring for the last sixty minutes, finishing at 1 o'clock felt just like ending the day at 3 as usual…

I had never liked math in grade school, and things hadn't changed since I got into high school either. Not only was it least said _deadly_ dull and boring, but I just couldn't seem to remember a single math lesson in which I hadn't thought something like: _When on earth will I ever get any use of all of this stuff? _At least once…

"Everything all right, Jim?" A voice suddenly said, making me jump in surprise. I looked up and saw that it was John, our math- and biology teacher, who had been speaking.

"Um, sure! No problem!" I said, smiling stiffly. He gave me a short smile.

"Okay, just tell me if you need help." He said as he turned around, and walked towards the person sitting right next to me.

"Sure…" I replied. As much as I hated math, I actually liked John a lot. He was surprisingly easy to talk to (as long as you didn't start discussing equations or algebra with him…) and he had always tried very hard to help me, although it was clear he knew just how much I hated math. He was definitely one of my favourite teachers. I sighed again and picked up my math book, trying to remember where I had left of last time... As I flicked through the pages a strange feeling suddenly came over me: A feeling of all sounds around me suddenly dying away, almost as if an invisible cushion had been put over my ears.

I wondered what was going on when, suddenly, I heard a strange sound: It sounded like a voice, but it definitely wasn't a voice I recognized, and neither could I make out what it was saying. No sooner had I heard it, though, before it died down. I didn't understand. Had it just been my imagination? Or…? I looked around the classroom. Nobody showed any signs of having heard the strange voice, and the strange feeling of not hearing any sounds were still over me... Then, suddenly, the voice was back, and this time I could actually hear it clearly "_Come…Please…Come to me…_" I was completely stunned. I had no idea what was going on, but suddenly yet another strange feeling came over me: That whoever calling for me wasn't, well, human…

"Jim? Jim! Are you okay?" Suddenly I heard John's voice and no sooner had I heard it before the mysterious voice faded away and the strange deafness I had been feeling vanished as quickly as it had come. I looked up, seeing John looking at me, and he did look pretty worried.

"Are you okay, Jim?" He asked again "You looked all spaced out there, are you…"

"Who was that?" I interrupted "What was that voice? That voice calling for me to come?" John gave me another worried look.

"None's been calling for you to come, Jim" He said "What are you talking about?"

"But there was a voice!" I said "Someone was talking to me, asking me to come, and…"

"Are you really sure you're all right?" John said, now sounding even more worried than before.

I was about to say something when, suddenly, I felt a pang of pain shooting through my head, and I instantly twitched, placing my hand to my head.

"Are you having a head ache?" John asked me, now sounding a little calmer.

"Well, maybe a little…" I replied as the pounding in my head die down slightly.

"In that case, maybe you should go home and get some rest." John said with a little smile.

"Well, okay…" I replied. I quickly put my math book back into my bag and walked out through the door.

* * *

><p>As I opened my locker to get my jacket, something fell out and landed in front of me. It was a book about dinosaurs I had gotten from the school library a few weeks ago. I smiled when I saw it. I liked dinosaurs. I had ever since I was a kid, but during my time in grade school, our school library had been really small and hadn't had any books about dinosaurs, and to make things worse the towns' own library had burned down almost immediately after I started first grade, and there hadn't been any money for building a new one, so I hadn't had much of a chance to read and learn anything about dinosaurs. Luckily, it had turned the high school had a huge library with plenty of books about pretty much everything, including dinosaurs, so the first few weeks since I had started I had spent pretty much every break picking out books about dinosaurs at the library and reading them. As I picked it up I suddenly remembered I was supposed to hand it back today! I quickly put my jacket on and rushed off. The library was still open, so I thought I'd go hand it back before going home.<p>

* * *

><p>The school library was located in a separate building, so I had to walk outside to get there, and as I did I looked around: Fall had arrived for real now, and the trees had lost almost all their leaves, and those still left on the branches had turned yellow and red, waiting to fall off as well. Although the sun was still up, there was quite a chill in the air, so I was happy to have my jacked on. As I walked towards the library building, my head suddenly started pounding again, only this time it was more intense. Much more intense. I once again clutched my head in my hand and as I did, I suddenly began to feel very dizzy. Everything around me started to look blurry, and suddenly my legs began shaking like jelly. I fell down on my knees, wondering what was happening, begging for it all to stop.<p>

"_Come…Please…Come to me…_" All of a sudden I could hear that voice again. I tried to rise back up from the ground, but instead I could feel my head falling heavily onto the cold ground and then everything turned black…

* * *

><p>I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes. What just happened? Did I pass out? I sat up and looked around, but I immediately had to blink: I wasn't lying on the road in front of the school library anymore: In fact, what I now laid on looked more like a wide open plain. I could even see a large groove of trees in the distance, but they didn't look anything like the trees growing around the school, and another thing that struck me was that they were all still green…<p>

No sooner had I noticed it before I also realized I was sweating heavily. But I was almost fall… How could it be this hot…?

As the questions kept popping up in me head I suddenly heard something behind me and turned around, and I couldn't believe what I saw: In front of me stood an enormous, four-footed creature with a row of large, triangular plates growing from its back and I could see four long, sharp spikes jutting out from the end of its massive tail. I couldn't believe it…It was a Stegosaurus! I was completely stunned. What was going on? Had I somehow been sent back in time to the age of dinosaurs? But was that even possible…? Or was I just dreaming? The Stegosaurus walked up closer to me. I cringed in fear. Even though I knew very well Stegosaurus's were herbivores, the sight of the enormous lizard still made me absolutely terrified, and tried desperately to get back on my feet to run away from it, but for some reason my body didn't obey me. The Stegosaurus now stood just a few inches away from me. I shivered as it looked at me with its small black eyes, and I could hear it sniffing me…

Then, without warning, it just walked right past me.

_What was that all about? _I thought in surprise. I had totally expected it to trample me, or something like that. As I sat there all confused I suddenly remembered watching a show on TV about dinosaurs: There they had said something about that if a dinosaur where to feel the scent of a human, we would smell like "mammals" to them, and the only mammals that existed during the age of dinosaurs where small, furry rodent-like creatures. Did that Stegosaurus just now think I was one of those creatures, and therefore found me uninteresting? Well, I didn't really mind. It was better than having to take a hit from one of those massive tail spikes anyways…

While I was sitting there trying to take it all in, a shadow suddenly fell over me, and I thought a cloud must have covered the sun. But when I turned around to look, I quickly realized that wasn't the case: The reason was that there was another dinosaur standing in front of me. Only this one I immediately recognized as a carnivore: It had rather short front legs, but its hind legs where much longer, and looked very strong. Its open mouth was full of dagger-like teeth and at the end of its snout there was a short, dull horn. I knew immediately what dinosaur it was: It was a Ceratosaurus!


	2. An unlikely friend

Chapter 2:

As the Ceratosaurus towered over me, a terrifying realization immediately came over me: This dinosaur wasn't going to simply ignore and walk away from me, like the Stegosaurus had previously done; this dinosaur wanted to eat me! In the next moment my fear was confirmed when the Ceratosaurus suddenly opened its jaws up wide, slowly leaning down towards me. I screamed out loud in horror, and luckily I was able to get back on my feet this time, and I immediately started to run as fast as I could from it. But as I ran something told me it was no usel: The Ceratosaurus had much longer legs than I had, and it could without a doubt run a lot faster than me. I glanced over my shoulder and I was absolutely terrified to se my guess had been right on the money: The Ceratosaurus was following me, and it closed in on me for every second. I kept pushing myself to run faster when, suddenly, I felt my foot hitting something hard, and I fell with a thud to the ground: In my attempt to get away from the hungry predator I must have lost check of my footing and ended up tripping, but the though of what just happened immediately left my mind as the Ceratosaurus towered over me once again, barring its teeth, ready to eat me…

But as the Ceratosaurus slowly leaned in over me, a loud roar suddenly pierced through the air. The Ceratosaurus's jaws stopped just a few inches away from my face and it looked up, as if trying to find out where the sound had come from, and in the next moment something suddenly rammed into it, sending it crashing to the ground: Something big. I stared in amazement at the dinosaur now standing in front of me: It looked very much like the Ceratosaurus, but this dinosaur was bigger, and rather than a single horn on its snout, it had two short, rather flat horns jutting out from above its eyes…

I gasped as I realized what it was: It was an Allosaurus!

For a moment I was astounded by the new dinosaur now standing in front of me, but then it suddenly turned straight towards me. I felt it like my blood froze. I understood: This Allosaurus must have seen the Ceratosaurus chasing me, and attacked it so that it could take its prey – Me. _Just great… _I thought _I just escaped one predator, only to fall right into the jaws of another_… The Allosaurus now towered over me, and before I had a chance to stand back up and run, it leaned down over me with its jaws open, and in the next second it had grabbed my right leg in its mouth. I cringed in pain as the teeth dug into my leg. _That's it… _I thought _If I can really feel pain that means this is not a dream, which means I really will get eaten…_

The Allosaurus raised it head, and I felt how I was lifted from the ground, now dangling helplessly in its jaws. The Allosaurus started running with me still in its jaws, and I guessed it was heading for a place where it could eat me in peace, without being bothered by other predators…

* * *

><p>I didn't know for how long time the Allosaurus had been running or how far, when suddenly I felt its jaws open and I fell down onto firm ground once again. I quickly looked around and immediately realized that I was now lying on the ground in a large, open clearing close to small lake. Then I heard a growl from behind me and I turned around, seeing the Allosaurus now standing in front of me, slowly leaning in over me. I closed my eyes, waiting for it to sink it teeth into me. Even though I knew doing it wouldn't really do me any good I still didn't felt like looking when I got eaten alive…<p>

But nothing happened. I just laid there on the ground with my eyes closed for I don't know how long. I was starting to wonder if maybe it had left, thinking I wouldn't be able to run away in my present condition, when, suddenly, I felt something hit my face. I wasn't quite sure what it could have been, but it felt very much like a drop of cold liquid...Could it have been a raindrop? I still didn't dare to look. In the next second I felt yet another drop on my face, and I finally decided to open my eyes. Immediately I saw the Allosaurus standing leaned over me, but I immediately had to blink when I saw what it was doing:

It was crying. Large tears slowly welled up in its eyes, falling silently onto the ground.

I was completely stunned. As big and frightening as the Allosaurus was, I just couldn't help but feeling a sting in my heart from seeing it stand there, with tears running down its face.

"What's wrong?" I said, but I almost immediately realized it was pointless: _There just no way on Earth it could understand me…It probably doesn't even know the sounds I'm making actually has a meaning… _I thought when, suddenly, I heard a voice, and I could have sworn that it was coming from somewhere nearby.

"_I didn't mean to…I really didn't…_" I stared in shock. Did it really just answer me? But that was impossible, there's just no way a dinosaur could really speak, right…?

"What do you mean?" I asked towards the Allosaurus, despite still being very scared of it I just couldn't help but wondering if it actually had been it speaking to me.

"_Your leg…I'm sorry…It must really have hurt…_" There was that same voice again! And this time I was positive it came from right in front of me, meaning it really _was_ the Allosaurus speaking! And although I wasn't sure the same thing applied to dinosaur as with humans, judging from the voice I was pretty sure that this Allosaurus was a female…

"Um, well, but that's no problem if you're going to eat me, now is it?" I said, but I instantly clapped my hand over my mouth. Getting eaten was definitely the last thing I wanted, and I really didn't want to encourage it to do so. Much to my surprise the Allosaurus suddenly backed away from me as soon as I said it, shaking its head wildly.

"_Never!_" She cried "_I would never try to eat you! Why would I do that?_" I just stared at her.

"So if it wasn't for food, why did you attack that Ceratosaurus when it was trying to eat me?" I wasn't really sure why I even asked it, but for some reason I just had to know why she had bothered to do it, if not to eat me. The Allosaurus walked up closer again, and as she looked at me I could see what looked very much like uncertainty in her eyes.

"_I'm not sure…_" She said carefully "_All I know is that when I saw that Ceratosaurus chasing you, it was as if something just told me to stop it from getting you no matter what…_" Once again I felt completely stunned.

"So what you're saying is that you were actually trying to save me?" I asked completely in awe.

"_Yes…But I never meant to hurt you like that…_" I looked down on my right leg. The jeans I had been wearing were now in tatters and the whole leg was smeared with my blood, but the wounds from the teeth didn't seem that very deep, so I guessed her bite hadn't been so hard after all.

"Don't worry! I'm fine!" I said when, suddenly, I felt a jolt of pain running trough my leg and cringed. The Allosaurus must have noticed it too, because almost immediately I could see more tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"No, really, I _am_ fine!" I said hurriedly "Sure, it does hurt a little, but that's okay, I mean: You saved my life after all, so…" Before I could finish she suddenly opened her jaws and leaned in closer. I cringed in fear, thinking she really would eat me after all. But much to my surprise she started licking my wounded leg. Her tongue felt kind of warm, and it was really slobbery, but as she licked my leg the pain slowly began to die down, and when she stopped the pain had almost completely disappeared. She took a step away from me, and I tried to stand up. The leg stung a little, but I had no problems standing on it, which at least meant it wasn't broken. She gave me a worried look, and I looked right at her and smiled.

"Thanks" I said "I feel much better now. Thanks a lot!" Her eyes suddenly seemed to get a happier look, and for some reason seeing it made me fell happy to. Then she suddenly turned around and began walking towards the nearby lake.

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked her.

"_I'm just going to get some water…I'll be back soon…_" She said as she headed over to the lake, leaning over the surface of the water to drink. I hesitated for a while, but eventually I decided to follow her. I kneeled down in front of the lake and cupped my hands to drink as well. The water was quite cold, but other than that there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it, so I would at least have access to fresh water while I was here. After I was done I began to rip off the torn, bloody parts of my jeans, and started scooping up water in my hands to wash off all the blood from my leg. This way I could at least be pretty sure it didn't get infected.

Suddenly I noticed it was starting to get dark and when I looked around I realized that the Allosaurus had headed back into the clearing without me noticing, and now she was lying down on the ground.

"_Is there something wrong?_" She suddenly said, looking at me. I didn't say anything. "_Come. You can sleep here next to me. I already told you I won't eat you..._" I hesitated for a short while, but I decided to do as she said. After all, if I really had been transported to the age of dinosaurs there was just no way I would ever be able to survive without someone to protect me from other predatory dinosaurs. So my best chance right now would be to trust in her to keep me safe. Slowly I walked up to her and as I did our eyes met. As I looked into her eyes there was something about them that made me feel peaceful, almost as if they reminded me of something I knew very well…

"Um, okay…" I said, and walked up to her belly "Can I sleep here?" I asked her.

"_Of course._" She said peacefully. As I carefully leaned against her belly I got quite the surprise: I had expected her skin to be all rough and cold, but to my surprise it turned out her scales where actually pretty warm and smooth, so leaning against them felt very comfortable. And as she breathed I could feel her belly rise and lower, and it felt very relaxing. I turned my eyes towards the sky and saw that it was now full of stars, just like the sky back home. _Well _I thought to myself _looks like some things never change no matter where you are…_

Suddenly a thought crossed my mind and I turned towards her to say something, but when I did I realized her eyes were now closed and she was already asleep. I smiled. I decided to let it all wait till tomorrow. I leaned back against her belly again and closed my eyes, and a few moments later I was sleeping as well.


	3. Name and mystery

Chapter 3:

I didn't know how long I had slept, but suddenly I could feel a ray of sunlight shining on my face, causing me to wake up. I yawned, rubbing my eyes as I sat up and looked around, immediately seeing the lake and the surrounding clearing. Immediately remembering yesterday's events, I looked down on my right leg to see how it looked now, and much to my surprise I noticed the wounds from the Allosaurus's teeth were more or less healed, and the leg did no longer ache the least. Remembering the Allosaurus I quickly turned around and noticed that she was still lying on the ground behind me sleeping. I slowly stood up and walked up closer to her head. Even though I knew very well she was a carnivore, I just couldn't help but feeling there was something soothing and peaceful to her lying there sleeping in front of me...

Quietly I went around her head and walked up to the back of her neck, kneeling down. A sudden urge struck me; I hesitated for a short while, but then I slowly reached out my hand, placing it onto her neck before gently letting it slide down it. Almost immediately I could feel her starting to move, and in the next second she opened her eyes, looking around wildly for what had just touched her. I flinched in fear, but as soon as her eyes fell on me she seemed to instantly calm down.

"_Was that you?_" She asked. I was surprised that she didn't sound the least bit upset after being woken up so suddenly; if anything she sounded a lot more questioning and even a little curious.

"Yes…" I said, feeling a little dumb "I'm really sorry; I didn't mean to wake you up, I just couldn't…"

"_Could you do that again?_" She asked, tilting her head slightly as she looked at me.

"Huh?"

"_I admit I got a little surprised, but that you just did…It actually felt really nice…_" She said. I just stood there looking at her, not sure what to say or do.

"_Please?_" She said, this time in an almost begging kind of way.

"Um…Okay…" I said. I leaned down again and began stroking her neck. And as I did she closed her eyes again and sighed, as if she really enjoyed me doing it. And when I stopped after a while, she opened her eyes again and turned to look at me.

"_Thank you…_" She said, and it was pretty clear that she was very happy.

"Don't mention it…" I said "And sorry again for surprising you. I guess I should at least have waited for you to wake up before touching you like that…"

"_You know what? I'm really starting to like you…_" She said peacefully as she kept looking at me. When I heard her say that I felt all warm inside, and then I suddenly remembered my thought from yesterday night.

"Can I ask you something?" I said carefully.

"_Of course. Go ahead._" She replied calmly.

"Well…I'm not sure if you've guessed it yet, but I'm not a creature from around here. As a matter of fact I came here from another time…" I said slowly, a slight feeling that what I said must sound completely insane to her...

"_Really?_" She said, sounding both confused and a little curious.

"Yes…And the way things are, I won't have much of a chance to survive here all alone, so…"

"_But you're not alone…_" She suddenly said "_I told you yesterday I won't let anything happen to you…If you need to I will protect you…_" Once again I got a warm feeling inside of me.

"Yes…" I said "No matter how I think about it, I can't see any other way…So I wanted to know if it would be okay if I gave you a name to call you?"

"_A name? For me?_" She said "_That's fine by me, but what would it be?_"

"Actually, I did have a particular one in mind…" I said slowly.

"_Really? What is it?_" She said, clearly curious to find out.

"Um…Well…Would it be okay if I called you Aurora?" I asked carefully.

"_Aurora?_" She repeated "_Yes...I really like it. But what does it mean?_"

"Well…You see" I said, relieved that she liked her new name "Where I come from there is a very special thing called Northern Lights. It's a kind of…Well…Phenomenon in the sky. It's really beautiful, and another name for it is just _Aurora_."

"_It sounds very nice_" She said "_But how did you come up with that being a name for me?_"

"I got the idea yesterday when I looked at your eyes." I replied "This might sound a bit silly…But the way they sparkled kind of reminded me of the Northern Lights at home, so I thought it would be a good name…"

"_The way you describe it, it sounds really beautiful. I wish I could see it sometime…_" She sighed.

"Yeah, I see what you mean…" I said.

"_By the way_" She said, raising her body from the ground, standing up "_Do you have a name I can call you?_"

"Yes, my name is Jim." I replied.

"_Jim? That's nice._" She said "_Glad to meet you, Jim._"

"Glad to meet you too, Aurora." I said while smiling at her. Suddenly she leaned in closer to me, and this I didn't feel the least bit afraid. She gently nudged me with her nose and I stroke it with both of my hands, and as our eyes met again I could clearly tell that from now on we would be good friends…

As we stood there I suddenly started to feel dizzy again, and my legs once again felt weak and shivery just like before. And in the next second I slumped onto the ground.

"_Jim…Jim, are you all right?_" Aurora said in a worried tone, but suddenly my sight started to get blurry again, and she slowly started to grow more and more unclear to my eyes. Then everything turned black again…

* * *

><p>I groaned as I opened up my eyes, looking around. The clearing and the lake was gone, and I couldn't see Aurora either...<p>

I gasped as I realized I was lying on my knees on the road to the school library once again! I instantly looked down on my right leg, and much to my surprise the leg of my jeans was back to normal again, but as I pulled it up to check it I could still see the almost-healed marks after Aurora's teeth…What was going on? Had I been in some kind of coma, or...? What had happened felt just way too real to have been just a dream…

I looked at my wristwatch and to my surprise I saw that it was only half past twelve! I couldn't understand this at all. I was certain I had spent a whole night in the world of dinosaurs, or whatever it had been, but from the looks of things it was like no time had passed at all since I collapsed...I stood back up, but as I did, I noticed something lying on the ground beside me: The book of dinosaurs I had had in my locker. I instantly remembered that I had been about to hand it back to the library and bent down to pick it up.

But as I picked up the book, something suddenly fell out from the pages, landing on the ground in front of me. I looked at it in surprise. It looked like some sort of card, and as I picked it up I realized the card had a picture of an Allosaurus on it! I was confused. I must have read this book at least five times already, but this card had definitely never been in it before...

I turned the card around, looking at the back of it, and then I noticed an odd symbol printed on it: It kind of reminded me of a gust of wind... What on Earth was that supposed to mean? Still thinking I put my hand to the pocket of my jacket, and to my surprise I felt something small and hard in it. I knew very well the only thing I had put in there before leaving was my gloves, so I had no idea what else could be there. I quickly put my hand into the pocket and pulled out the mysterious object.

"Huh? What in the World this?" I said to myself as I looked at what I now held in my hand: It looked like some kind of stone. Judging from its shape it almost looked like it used to be a part of something bigger, and as I turned it in my hand I noticed it had something that looked almost like a small chip on its side. Confused I kept turning it in my hand and suddenly noticed there was also a mark on it; exactly like the symbol on the card I had found in the book! What could that possibly mean…? I put the card and stone in my pocket, and started to make my way up to the library, my head spinning with questions...

I quickly snuck into the library, leaving the book at the counter along with the other to-be-returned books, before quickly heading for the exit. As soon as I had exited, I ran in behind the building, pulling out the card and stone from my jacket and looked at them again. _Hm...If they have the same symbol on them, does that mean they somehow belong together?_ I thought _What if I...? _I tried holding the two of them against each other, but nothing happened. _Either I was wrong and they don't belong together, or I'm not doing it right…_I thought slightly disappointed as I pulled the two of them apart, causing the card to rub against the stone. In the next second the card started to glow with a bright, blue light, and suddenly it flew out of my hand. There was another sharp blaze of light, and as it cleared I immediately realized there was an Allosaurus now standing in front of me! I gasped in shock as it looked down at me, squeezing the stone in my hand. Immediately there was another flash of light, and the Allosaurus vanished. I stared in amazement as I saw the card I just found fall down on the ground in front of me. I picked it up again. Did this mean this card really _was _the Allosaurus? But could that even be possible...? I hesitated. Should I try doing it again? What if someone saw me? Or worse: What if someone saw me and ended up getting hurt...? I looked around but I couldn't see anyone else around, so I decided to try it one more time, just to be sure I hadn't gone completely insane. Slowly I let the card slide over the stone again, and in the next moment it started glowing again and flew out of my hand onto the ground. I immediately noticed that the flash of light was a lot less bright this time, and as it died down, a much smaller baby-Allosaurus now stood in front of me. I looked at it, and it looked up at me. Our eyes met for a split second, and then, without warning, it jumped right at me, making me fall on my back in surprise. As I laid there the little Allosaurus walked up onto my chest and instantly started rubbing its head against my cheek.

"_Jim…I'm so glad that you're all right…_" I suddenly heard a girl's voice that sounded like it came from right in front of me. Could that mean…?

"Aurora? Is it really you?" I asked the little dinosaur in amazement.

"_Of course it is! What did you expect?_" The voice replied. There was no doubt about it: This small dinosaur really _was_ Aurora. That meant the card I had found actually was _her_!

Suddenly she stopped rubbing her head against my cheek and looked around.

"_Where are we?_" She said in amazement as she jumped down from my chest "_What is this place?_"

"This is where I live…" I said, standing back up "We're in my time now. The future..."

"_You mean we actually travelled through time?_" She said as she looked up at me "_How strange…_"

"Yeah, can't say I understand any of this either…" I replied. And we both stood there silent for I don't really know how long.

"Well…" I said at last, breaking the silence "Maybe we should head home to me…"

"_Home?_" Aurora said "_But I thought you said you lived here?_"

"Well, actually I don't really live here; this is just my school…" I replied.

"_School?_" Aurora repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, well about that..." I said "It's a little tricky to explain…" She looked at me for a short while.

"_Well, this is your time...I guess I'll just have to learn things as I go along._" She said at last.

"Guess so…" I replied.

"_Let's go to where you live then!_" She said "_I want to see it!_"

I smiled at her.

"Okay, let's go then!" I said and we started walking past the school library and down the street.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Reese, did you see it?" Max shouted as he and Chomp burst trough the door to the D-Lab, closely followed by Rex and Ace and Zoe and Paris.<p>

"Yes." She replied without turning away from the computer "It was only for a split second, but I definitely picked up a signal from a new dinosaur."

"So where is it?" Zoe asked her sister.

"It's in Europe. The exact location would be a pretty small town in the Northernmost parts of Sweden." Reese replied.

"You know, isn't it kind of strange it appeared and then just disappeared like that?" Rex said thoughtfully "You don't think it could be that the Alpha Gang is up to no good again…"

"Maybe." Reese said "But as of now we can't know for sure."

"Either way, we better get over there quickly!" Max said "If it were to appear again someone might get hurt!" Rex and Zoe both nodded, and they all rushed over to the teleporter along with their dinosaurs.

"Here we go, then…" Reese said as they prepared to teleport.


	4. Dinosaur in the future

Chapter 4:

As I walked down the street along with Aurora I tried to explain all about myself and the world of humans the best I could for her. I had a strong feeling that it wouldn't be easy for her to take in all that I said, but from the looks of things she looked like she at least kind of understood some of the things I said. We didn't meet anyone else as we walked: Probably because I had left class even earlier than usual and it was roughly one o'clock, meaning that most people was still at work or at school. I didn't mind; it felt perfectly fine just walking down the quiet, empty street with Aurora. Also I really didn't want to appear in public with her yet; it could easily lead to me having to answer unwanted questions…

"Well, here we are." I said to Aurora as we walked up the path leading up to our house. I hauled up the key from my pocket to open the door, and we both walked inside. Aurora looked around curiously.

"_I've never seen anything like this…_" She said in amazement. I just looked at her and smiled.

"Jim? Is that you?" A voice suddenly said, and my mum, Johanna, came out from the kitchen and walked up to us in the hall. I had lived with my mum for as long as I could remember. I had never even met my dad, but mum had always told me he used to be a fireman while he was still alive and a very talented one too. But one day, just a few days before I was born, he had been on a mission to help save another family from their burning house. Although he had managed to get them out in time, he had been trapped inside, unable to get out... Mum always used to say I looked almost exactly like him, and that I had my blue eyes and black hair from him. Herself she had rather long, brown hair and her eyes were green in colour. And in terms of height she was almost exactly as tall as me.

"You're home early, aren't you dear?" She said, smiling as she walked up to me.

"Well…Yeah…We got to leave class a little earlier today…" I murmured. She smiled again, but suddenly her eyes fell on Aurora standing by my feet, eyeing her cautiously.

"Oh, and what have we here?" She said as she leaned down, as if to get a better look at her.

"_Jim? Who is this?_" Aurora asked and looked up at me. I froze, terrified of what mum would say if she found out that she could talk, but for some reason she didn't seem to react to her words at all. It was as if she hadn't heard her...

"Well…She's just a dog I found on the way home" I said nervously "And she...Kind of followed me home, so do you think we can keep her?" I asked carefully. Mum rose back up, giving me a puzzled look.

"But I thought you didn't like dogs, dear?" She said.

"Yeah…Well…It's never too late to change your mind, right?" I said nervously. Mum looked at me for a short while, but then she just smiled once more.

"All right, if you really want to" She said "Just remember it's you who has to take care of her."

"Of course." I said. She smiled at me again before walking past me, grabbing her coat from the hanger.

"I thought I'd go shopping for dinner" She said as she put it on "Since its Friday I thought we'd have beef steak tonight – Your favourite! Oh, and I guess we'll have to get something for our new family member..."

"Sounds good" I said "I'll see you later, then." As soon as she closed the door behind her, I let out a sigh of relief.

"That was close…" I said.

"_Jim, what's a "dog"?_" Aurora asked, giving me a puzzled look.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." I said quickly. She gave me an uncertain look "Please, don't be offended!" I said hurriedly "But it's better if mum doesn't get to know what you really are."

"_Humans don't like dinosaurs?_" She asked, tilting her head slightly.

"No, it's not like that!" I said "It's just that if she finds out that you're actually a real, live dinosaur, it could be problematic, so I really don't think it would be wise to let her know. Not yet, anyway..." Aurora looked at me for a long time, as if she was thinking about what to say.

"_This all sounds so complicated…_" She said slowly "_But I think I understand._" I smiled gratefully at her.

"Come on" I said "I'll show you around!" And she walked after me into the house.

* * *

><p>I spent the rest of the afternoon showing Aurora everything in the house and explained for her all about how humans lived, how we worked, and all sorts of other things I could come up with. I was just showing her my own bedroom when I heard mum calling downstairs.<p>

"Dinner is ready!" She called. I and Aurora quickly left the room and headed downstairs. As I sat down by the table, mum put down a bowl on the floor next to me, pouring some dog food I assumed she had bought for Aurora in it. I was a little sceptical as to what she would say about it, but much to my surprise she didn't seem to mind, and started eating without complaints. While mum was out in the kitchen to get something, I cut a slash of my meat and held it out towards Aurora.

"Here, why don't you try this?" I said to her. She looked at the meat in my hand for a while and…

"Ouch!" I yelled, pulling my hand back towards me. Aurora had suddenly bit into the meat, but she had also bit into my finger in the process. I looked at it, seeing that it was bleeding slightly. I then looked at Aurora, and was surprised to see that she was backing away from me.

"_I'm really sorry…I didn't mean to…_" She said in a terrified way as she slowly backed away.

"It's okay…" I said "Just a moment…I'll get a bandage…" I walked out into the kitchen and washed my hand before putting a piece of plaster on my finger. I couldn't help but smiling to myself: Being a carnivore and all, she must have been so excited about the meat she didn't pay attention to what she bit, and thus ended up biting my finger by accident. As I walked back into the dining room, though, I saw mum sitting by the table, but I couldn't see Aurora anywhere.

"Hey, where'd she go?" I asked mum "She was here just a minute ago…"

"I have no idea, dear." She said in a worried tone.

"Then I'll just have to look for her!" I said, promptly turning around and walking out of the room.

"But…" Mum started.

"I'll eat once I find her!" I replied shortly.

* * *

><p>I looked through all the rooms in the house, but just couldn't seem to find her. <em>The door and all the windows are closed <em>I thought as I looked around for a sight of her _So at least she can't have left the house…_

Finally I walked into my own room, and as I did, I almost immediately heard a sound coming from under my bed, almost like someone sobbing. I crouched down in front of the bed and looked in under it, and as I did I saw Aurora lying there and much to my surprise she seemed to be crying again…

"What are you doing in here?" I asked. She looked up at me, sniffling a bit.

"_I'm just so sorry…_" She said "_After angering you like that I didn't want to…_"

"What?" I said, not understanding at all "I'm not mad at you! Why would I?"

"_But I just hurt you… Again…_" She said as more tears slowly welled up in her eyes.

"Wait, you're talking about this?" I said, holding up my now bandaged finger. She nodded slowly "Don't be silly! It was just an accident! So why would I be mad at you for it?"

"_But…_" She said. I just shook my head, reaching in under the bed to pull her out. I carefully put her down on my bed before sitting down on it next to her. And for a few moments we just sat there.

"_Jim?_" She suddenly said and looked up at me.

"Yes?" I replied, looking into her eyes.

"_Do you think I…Cry a lot?_" She asked uncertainly. When she said that I immediately remembered how she had cried over hurting my leg back when she saved me from the Ceratosaurus…

"Well…" I said "Maybe a little…" She looked down as more tears started to well up in her eyes.

"_I knew it…_" She said. At that moment I felt completely horrible. It was just so obvious that she had wanted me to say something to comfort her, and instead I made her feel even worse...

I picked her up in my arms, hugging her tightly.

"I wouldn't want you any other way…" I murmured as I stroke her bright blue scales. She looked at me.

"_Really? You mean it?_" She said as if she couldn't believe what she just heard.

"Of course…" I replied "After all, you are you; you saved my life…You're my friend and I…I love you…"

She placed her head on my shoulder, and suddenly I felt how it got all wet: She was crying again, and her tears soaked my shirt.

"Aurora…" I said quietly "Please don't be sad, I told you..."

"_It's not that…_" She said, sniffling again "_It's just that…What you just said…It made me feel so happy…The tears wont stop…_" I smiled and hugged her again, and she placed her head against my cheek…

"Aurora…" I murmured.

"_Jim…Thank you…_" She said quietly.

"Oh, aren't you two just adorable…" A voice suddenly said, making both of us jump in surprise. I looked up and saw mum standing in the door, smiling at us. I had no idea how long she had been standing there…

"Um…We were just…I mean..." I said, blushing slightly.

"I'm glad to see you two getting along so well, but dinner's getting cold." She said softly before turning around and walking out trough the door.

"Oh…Right…" I said, rising from the bed "Come on, Aurora…" And as we walked out of the room she looked up at me and our eyes met, and as I looked into her eyes I could see the same peaceful, soothing shimmer I had seen back when I first came up with the idea for her name, meaning she wasn't sad about what had happened anymore. I smiled at her and for a moment I could have sworn she actually smiled at me as well...

* * *

><p>After finishing dinner I decided to take a walk with Aurora. The sun was setting, but it would still be a while before it got pitch-black, so I thought it would be a good idea to take the chance. Mum just smiled when I said it, telling me not to be out too late, and so we left the house. As we walked down the street I could feel a chilling wind blow by us, making me happy to have my gloves and jacket on. I looked down worriedly at Aurora, but much to my surprise she didn't seem bothered by the wind at all. Aurora actually seemed pretty happy with things again, and walked right next to me as she looked around, occasionally sniffing the air as we walked down the street. The sky soon got darker and the stars began to light up, and as we both looked up on them I smiled to myself, thinking that there at least would be something here in the world of humans that Aurora was familiar with. When we reached the end of the street, close to the nearby forest, I stopped at a corner and looked down at her once more, but I got surprised when I realized she wasn't standing there anymore.<p>

_Where did she go?_ I thought as I looked around, but I almost immediately spotted her, standing just a few metres away from me.

"Hey, is there something wrong?" I asked her.

"_I'm not sure…I thought I heard something…_" She said.

"What? What is it?" I asked her when, suddenly, she started sniffing the air again.

"_Strange…_" She said slowly "_It smells almost like…A dinosaur…_" I looked sceptically at her. For a moment I was about to say that it wouldn't be possible for there to be another dinosaur here, but then I realized something: Her small size had almost made me forget she was actually a full-grown Allosaurus, a full-fledged predatory dinosaur, meaning that if she said she could feel the scent of another dinosaur there would actually be very little reason not to take her statement seriously.

"Do you know where it's coming from?" I asked quickly.

"_It smells like it's…Nearby…_" She said. I just stood there, not sure what to say. Then, without warning, I suddenly felt something slam into my back, and I fell face-first onto the sidewalk.


	5. Meeting new friends

Chapter 5:

I fell crashing to the ground and I could feel a jolt of pain running trough my elbow as it hit the street. I put my hand on the ground to push myself back up on my feet. _What was that?_ I though as I rose back up.

"Ow, that hurt…" I suddenly heard a voice behind me, and I whirled around. It had gone pretty dark and the streetlights hadn't been lit yet, so it was hard to see, but I was almost certain I saw the outlines of a person lying on the ground in front of me. I quickly realized what had happened: Whoever was lying on the ground in front of me must have run right into me, not seeing me because of the darkness, and made us both fall to the ground.

"I'm really sorry" I said "Here, let me help you." I said and reached out my hand towards the person on the ground.

"Thanks." The voice said, and this time I could hear quite clearly it was a boy's voice. In the next second I could feel him grab a hold of my hand, and I pulled him up on his feet.

"I'm really sorry" I said again "Are you okay?"

"Don't worry" The boy replied "It was my own fault for not looking…"

Suddenly the nearby streetlight flickered and the street was suddenly bathing in light, and I could see him clearly. He looked like he was a bit younger than me, maybe twelve, or soon to be, at least. He had brown, rather spiky hair and purple eyes. I saw that he was wearing a red shirt with a yellow hood, orange pants and a pair of trainers. I also noticed he had a black waist-bag with what looked a lot like a tooth of some sort on it, a pair of finger-less gloves and a rather unusual head gear with what looked like two horns sticking out from it.

I looked at him and he looked at me. A strange feeling came over me: I knew I had never seen him before, but for some reason it felt almost like I knew him from somewhere...

"Thanks again for helping me, my name's Max." The boy said and reached out his hand towards me.

"And I'm Jim." I said as I shook his hand "And don't mention it, I couldn't just leave you there, now could I?"

"Well, I guess…" He said with a little laugh. I couldn't help but smiling, to. Then suddenly I heard a strange sound and looked down, and almost immediately I saw, well, something walk up to the boy's leg. It was pretty small, but I was almost certain it was…

"Hey, what's that?" I said and pointed down at it. The boy looked down as well.

"Oh, that…" He said, and suddenly he sounded nervous for some reason "That's just Chomp…He's my dog…" I looked at it again. It definitely didn't look anything like a dog. It was a small, yellow creature with four stout legs and a rather short tail. It had a red line going down its back and tail, and around its neck it had what looked very much like a frill, with red outlines and above its eyes I could clearly see what looked like two rather short horns, and it also had one on its nose. In the centre of its forehead there was a red mark shaped like a diamond. It almost looked like…

"A Triceratops?" I said before even thinking. The boy's eyes widened when I said it, and when he spoke again he sounded more nervous than ever.

"D-Don't be ridiculous…" He stuttered, while attempting a smile "A Triceratops here? That's just…"

"_Jim? Is there something wrong?_" Aurora suddenly said as she walked up to me. In the next second her eyes fell on the boy, and just a moment later he had noticed her as well. His eyes widened again.

"What?" He said incredulously "Is that…?"

"A dinosaur?" I said. He just stared at me, completely in awe.

"How did you…Where did you…?" He stuttered.

"What's the problem?" I asked, slightly surprised by his reaction "You have a dinosaur to, so what's the big deal?" The boy took a few deep breaths, and seemed to calm down a little, but he still seemed pretty taken aback.

"Well…" He said, while searching for something in his pocket "You see…" He started as he pulled something out of his pocket. I looked at it. I had no idea what it was, it looked almost like some kind of cell phone or remote of some sort. The boy opened a small hatch in it and pulled something out and held it up in front of me. I stared at it: It was a stone, almost exactly like the one I had found in my pocket before, only this one had a yellow mark on it which resembled a lightning bolt.

"Well, you see…" The boy started, but before he could say anything else I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out the stone I had found earlier. He gasped as he looked at it.

"B-But…" He said, completely in shock "How can you…?"

"Max! Max! There you are!" Someone suddenly called. We both turned around, and I saw two other kids come running down the street towards him. From the looks of things it was another boy and a girl at about the same age as him. The boy had blonde hair and blue eyes, wore a light blue jacket, a pair of beige pants and a pair of trainers. I also noticed he was wearing a large fang or claw of some sort in a string around his neck. The girl on the other hand had pink hair put up in two pigtails and her eyes were purple. She wore a yellow vest over a short black shirt, yellow shorts, tight-length socks and a pair of trainers. She also had a pair of sunglasses put up on her head, and I also noticed she to had some kind of tooth around her neck, only this one was much smaller than the blonde boy's.

"What do you mean by just running away like that?" The girl asked the boy called Max. I couldn't help but noticing she sounded pretty irritated, almost as if she was his mother and he was her disobedient child…

"We've been looking all over for you!" She said impatiently to him.

"But if we don't look around, how are we then supposed to find that dinosaur?" He said nervously. The other boy suddenly stepped in between them.

"But looking on your own won't work, now will it?" He said to his friend "None of us are familiar with this area."

"Yeah, and even if you were to find it we wouldn't be able to help you should you run into trouble." The girl said impatiently.

"Didn't think about that. Sorry…" He said.

"Excuse me…" I said, clearing my throat. The girl and the other boy jumped in surprise, which wasn't surprising since they apparently had been too focused on their friend to notice me.

"Who are you?" The girl asked.

"His name is Jim." The boy named Max said quickly. His friends looked at him.

"Do you know him, Max?" The other boy asked his friend.

"Well, I kind of bumped into him, but…" He started.

"Hey, what's that?" The girls suddenly said and pointed at Aurora who was still standing by my side. The other boy must have noticed to, because he suddenly looked straight at her as well. They both stared at us in shock.

"It's a dinosaur!" The girls gasped.

"Yeah, an Allosaurus!" The other boy said as he gazed at her, completely in awe.

I was about to say something when I noticed that they to had little dinosaurs standing right next to them! The dinosaur standing beside the girl was green, with four stout legs and a pretty short tail. Its underside was a slightly brighter green than its back, on which it had a blue line sticking up slightly, so I assumed that was its spine. And its nose looked a bit like the bill of a duck, and on the back of its head it had a long crest, which was pale yellow and blue. It looked a lot like a Parasaurolophus, which I remembered seeing a picture of in the book I had found Aurora's card in. Next I turned my attention to the dinosaur standing next to the blonde boy. It actually looked a bit like Aurora. It even had two horns above its eyes as well, but they were slightly bigger and they were yellow instead of purple, like on Aurora. Its underside was almost the same colour as Aurora's, though, but its back was a much darker blue. I also noticed it had yellow lines on its back and tail, and a row of short spikes running down its back and tail. I also noticed that its tail was slightly longer than the two dinosaurs'. This time I was actually sure of what species it was. It was a Carnotaurus, no doubt. I took my eyes of them and instead I looked at the boy and the girl still standing in front of me, looking at me and Aurora as if they had seen a ghost.

"How can you have a dinosaur?" The girl asked me, still completely in awe.

"Well…" I started "It's a long story…"

"It's not just that!" The boy named Max suddenly said "He also has a stone that looks exactly like yours, Rex!" He said to the other boy.

"What? For real?" He said, now sounding more shocked than ever "How did you…?"

"Time out!" I said, putting up my hand "Tell me about your dinosaurs, and then I will tell how I got mine." I looked at them in a resolute kind of way. They all looked at each other.

"All right." The boy named Max said at last "I'll tell you…"

And he told me everything. About how he had woken up and seen a meteor crash into the forest near were he lived. How he had woken his friends up and how next morning, they had gone there to investigate. He told me about how he had found a card with a Triceratops on it and how they had all found a mysterious stone with strange symbols on them. He then told me about how he had accidently rubbed the stone and card together causing the Triceratops to come to life, and how it then had ended up living with him. The girl and the other boy then told me about how they later had received their dinosaurs.

"Wow…" I said once they had finished telling "That's really amazing…"  
>"Now tell us how you got your dinosaur!" The girl said.<p>

And so I did. I told them everything about the voice I had heard in class. How I had collapsed and woken up in the Jurassic period. How I had been chased and almost eaten by that Ceratosaurus, but how I had been saved in the last second by Aurora. How next morning I had collapsed again and woken up back in the present. How I had found Aurora's card and the stone. How I had accidently released her from the card, and then about how I had swayed mum to let her stay with me.

Once I had stopped telling they all looked at me completely in awe.

"Incredible…" The girl said.

"Fantastic…" The boy named Max said.

"Well, you already heard it from Max, but my name's Jim." I said, reaching out my hand towards the other two. The blonde boy stepped forward and grabbed it.

"It's good to meet you, Jim. My name is Rex." He said as he shook my hand "Oh, and this is Ace." He said and nodded at the Carnotaurus standing at his feet.

"My name's Zoe." The girl said, shaking my hand as well "And this is Paris." She nodded at the Parasaurolophus standing by her.

"Max and Chomp. Rex and Ace. Zoe and Paris." I said as I looked at them "It's really great to meet you all. Oh! Almost forgot. This is Aurora." I said and pointed towards her.

"Aurora? What a pretty name." Zoe said and bent down to pet her, but she quickly ran in behind my leg.

"_Jim? Do you really think we can trust these people?_" She said nervously as she looked up on me.  
>"No doubt we can." I said, smiling at her. The girl Zoe looked at me in surprise.<p>

"You can understand what she says?" She asked.

"Of course." I said in surprise "Can't you do that to yours?"

They all looked at each other.

"Well, we've always been able to understand them pretty well, but we've never been able to actually talk to them…" Max said slowly. I didn't know what to say.

"_Well, if you say it's okay…_" Aurora said and stepped out from behind me. Zoe once again bent down and patted her head, and she seemed like she liked it. I stepped forward and kneeled down to pet Max's dinosaur, Chomp, but he immediately snapped after my hand.

"Yikes!" I said and pulled it away.

"Chomp! No!" Max said and picked him up "Sorry about that. He likes to bite on things…"

"It's all right..." I said, but I decided not to attempt petting Chomp for the moment, and instead I turned to Zoe's dinosaur, Paris. I carefully stroke her head, and she closed her eyes as if she really enjoyed it. Suddenly Ace, Rex's dinosaur, walked up to me, almost as if he wanted me to pet him as well. I stroke his head, and he seemed to really like it to.

"They all seem so nice…" I said as I rose back to my feet and walked back to Aurora "I'm really glad I met you!" I said, smiling at them.

"Yeah, I'm glad we met you to, Jim!" Max said, and they all smiled at me.

"But there's something I still don't understand…" I said "How come you came here in the first place?" I asked.

"Well, we kind of detected that a dinosaur appeared here…" Max said "We came to get it to make sure none got hurt, but since it apparently was your Aurora, I guess there's no need to worry."

"You travel around searching for dinosaurs?" I asked.

"That's right" Max said "That's what the D-Team is all about! Protecting and saving the dinosaurs!" Rex and Zoe both nodded in agreement.

"The D-Team?" I said, very impressed "That sound really cool. Do you think…"

"Oh, no! Not you again!" A voice suddenly said.


	6. Making the first move

Chapter 6:

I turned around to see who had been speaking, and I saw Max, Rex and Zoe turn around as well, and I couldn't help but noticing they all seemed rather angry for some reason…

As I turned around I immediately saw three people standing in front of us: One of them was a tall, rather skinny man wearing a long dark coat and dark glasses. He had short black hair with a few strands of hair sticking out in the front. The other one was a green-haired woman wearing what looked like a red suit with an opening showing her stomach and I also noticed she wore pink gloves and what looked like a cape on her back. The last one was a short, but pretty tubby man with bluish hair and a red nose. He wore a purple shirt with pink stripes, a pair of brown pants and a pair of dark pink gloves. I also noticed they all had a red mark that looked like a circle inside a triangle, forming what looked a bit like an A, on their clothes…

"How come you brats always have to show up when we're on a mission?" The woman growled, and I quickly realised she was talking to Max and the others.

"Just what we needed…" Zoe said, sounding anything but happy "The Old Lady." The woman's face immediately changed and suddenly she looked least said terrifying.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU I'M NOT AN OLD LADY!" She bellowed. I quickly stepped backwards. _Yikes…Creepy…_I thought.

"Ursula, calm down!" The tall man said hurriedly "We need to focus on the mission, remember?"

"Yeah, we need to find that dinosaur!" The tubby one said in a worried tone.

"You're right" The woman named Ursula said and calmed down slightly "We wouldn't want those brats to find it before us." _They're here looking for a dinosaur? _I thought _They couldn't possibly be…?_

"Who are you people?" I asked as I took a step forward. They all looked at me.

"And just who are you?" The tall man asked "Are you friends with them?" He said, pointing at Max, Rex and Zoe.

"Sort of, I only just met them." I replied, taking another step forward.

"Jim! Don't go near them!" Max suddenly shouted, and I stopped dead.

"Why?" I said turning towards him "Just who are they, anyway?"

"Those three are part of a gang of crooks calling themselves The Alpha Gang!" Max said "And their always trying to snatch dinosaurs from us!" I looked at him in amazement.

"But why?" I said still completely in awe.

"They're trying to steal and enslave all the dinosaurs so that their leader, Dr. Z, can use them to become the Dinosaur King!" Rex replied.

"That's disgusting!" I said, and for some reason the mere thought about it made me feel angry. And in the next second I realized something that made me even angrier: If they were here looking for a dinosaur that could only mean they were after Aurora!

"Hey, what's that?" The tubby guy suddenly said as he squinted in my direction. I froze.

"What? What is what, Ed?" The tall one said.

"That thing, Zander! That thing standing next to the new one!" The guy named Ed replied, and to my horror he suddenly pointed straight towards Aurora. The man named Zander and the woman, Ursula, both looked at where he pointed, and judging from the looks on their faces they had realized what was going on as well.

"It's a dinosaur!" The man named Zander said in utter surprise "And I would appear it's an Allosaurus!" His words confirmed my fears: They _had_ seen her, and from what Max and the others had told me they would without a doubt try to catch her…

"So that's why we couldn't locate it!" The woman named Ursula said "This other brat was hiding it all along!" She then looked right at me "Now be a smart young man and hand over that dinosaur to us!" She said.

"No way." I said as I stepped up in front of Aurora.

"Pardon?" The woman said with a clear hint of dislike in her voice.

"No way" I said again "Aurora is my friend! There's just no way I'll hand her over to the likes of you! Go find yourself another dinosaur!"

"_Jim…_" Aurora said. The woman quickly turned to the tall man named Zander.

"Don't just stand there, go get that dinosaur!" She said impatiently.

"Roger!" He said and fished out some kind of strange gadget from his coat. He pressed a button on it, and in the next second a hand that seemed to be attached to what looked like a mechanical arm flew out from it, and in the next second it had grabbed a hold of Aurora!

"_Jim, help me!_" Aurora cried.

"Good job! Now haul that dinosaur in!" The woman named Ursula said.

"You got it!" The man named Zander said and pressed another button, causing the arm to withdraw, and bringing Aurora towards them.

"Oh no, you don't!" I said angrily and rushed forward, grabbing a hold of the hand holding her, and stopping the arm from pulling Aurora any further. The man pressed the button again trying to pull the hand closer, but I held onto it with all my might, so it didn't budge.

Suddenly I felt something grabbing a hold of my arms, and to my horror I realized that the guy named Ed had grabbed a hold of me, and was trying to pull me away. As I thought that I wouldn't be able to hold on much longer at this rate, suddenly I felt how he released his grip of me and I could hear an "Ouch!". In the corner of my eye I saw that Chomp had bitten onto his leg, and Ed was now rolling around on the ground, struggling to get him of. Turning forward again, I pulled on the hand with all my strength and…

The mechanical arm suddenly snapped, and both I and the guy named Zander fell backwards, but Aurora was safe in my arms!

"Are you all right?" Zoe asked as she ran up to me.

"Yeah…" I said, bending of the mechanical hand from Aurora, freeing her "Thanks a lot!" I said and turned to Max, who just pulled Chomp away from Ed, who quickly ran back to the other two.

"Thank Chomp, not me!" He said, obviously happy I was all right.

"Why you worthless knuckleheads!" Ursula cried at Ed and Zander "Can't you do anything right?"

"Sorry, looks like this thing wasn't as foolproof as Dr. Z said it was…" Zander said, holding up the now broken gadget.

"I think my leg's broken…" Ed squealed, despite his leg wasn't even bleeding.

"I already told you, didn't I?" I said "You won't get Aurora! Not now, not ever!"

"Yeah, you tell them!" Max said.

"Well, if you won't give it to us, we're simply going to have to take it!" The woman named Ursula said as she pulled out another strange gadget, and then she pulled out a card and slashed it through the strange gadget.

"Alpha Slash!" She cried "Blaze, Tyrannosaurus!" There was a blaze of red light, and in the next second the Tyrannosaurus stood on the street in front of me! Its massive body was covered in red scales, and it bared its teeth as it towered over me. I stumbled backwards and tripped on the edge of the sidewalk, falling on my back with Aurora still in my arms.

"All right, Terry!" The woman named Ursula said "Now go get that Allosaurus, and teach that little brat a lesson while you're at it!"

I tried to rise back up and run away, but my body wouldn't move: I was paralyzed with fear. Aurora suddenly jumped out of my arms down on the ground and started growling at the T-Rex as if trying to keep him away from me, but she was so much smaller than he was there was just no way she would be able to keep him away from me that way. And indeed he seemed like he couldn't care less about her and just kept walking towards us...

"Dino Slash!" Max suddenly cried from behind me "Triceratops, roar!" There was a blaze of yellow light, and in the next second something rammed into the T-Rex, sending it stumbling backwards. It was a Triceratops! Could that mean…?

"Good job, Chomp! Now stop Terry!" Max said, confirming my guess: It really was Chomp! Only now he was fully grown and he was fighting the T-Rex to save me!

"What are you waiting for?" Ursula said to Ed and Zander "Bring out Spiny and Tank and get that dinosaur!"

"Right!" They both said, and they both pulled out an identical gadget and a card, slashing it through the gadget.

"Alpha Slash!" They both cried.

"Gush out, Spinosaurus!" Zander cried.

"Shake them up, Saichania!" Ed cried. And in a blaze of blue and purple light the Spinosaurus and Saichania appeared on the street in front of them, and began moving towards me. Suddenly Rex and Zoe stepped up in front of me, and they both pulled out a device similar to the one Max had shown me before. They both pressed a button on them, and suddenly Ace and Paris vanished and Rex and Zoe now each stood with a card in their hands.

"Dino Slash!" They both cried, slashing the cards through the strange devices.

"Carnotaurus, blow them away!" Rex cried.

"Spring up, Parasaurolophus!" Zoe cried. There was a blaze of blue and green light, and suddenly a fully grown Carnotaurus and Parasaurolophus stood on the street in front of me!

"Don't worry!" Rex said and turned to me "We won't let them get you or your dinosaur!"

"Yeah, we'll protect you no matter what!" Zoe said. Ace and Paris suddenly rushed towards the Saichania and Spinosaurus. The Saichania tried swinging at Ace with its tail club, but Ace easily dodged it and grabbed it by the tail with his jaws, and it struggled desperately to get loose. The Spinosaurus snapped after Paris with its jaws, but she quickly jumped out of the way, and its jaws just snapped in the empty air.

"Shock Wave!" Zander suddenly called, swiping another card through the strange gadget.

The Spinosaurus suddenly seemed to glow, as a huge mass of water suddenly floated around it. In the next second the water shot out towards Paris. She jumped out of the way in the last second, causing the wave of water to hit a group of large trees at the edge of the nearby forest, which immediately snapped. _What on Earth was that?_ I thought when, suddenly, I heard a loud roar. The T-Rex had grabbed a hold of Chomp's frill with its massive jaws, and in the next second it lifted him up and flung him onto the ground. As he struggled to stand back up the T-Rex opened its jaws to bite into him.

"Chomp!" Max cried.

"_Jim, we have to help him!_" Aurora said.

"I know, but how?" I said.

"_Try using the stone again_" She said "_Then you might be able to make me big enough to fight that T-Rex!_"

"Of course!" I said, and pulled out the stone. I tried desperately to remember how I had done earlier. I squeezed the stone in my hand, and suddenly there was a flash of light and Aurora vanished, but I immediately noticed I had her card in my hand.

"Here goes!" I said, swiping the card against the stone. There was a blaze of blue light, and suddenly a fully grown Allosaurus stood in front of me. Max, Rex and Zoe all turned around in amazement.

"All right, Aurora!" I called "Go help Chomp!" She started running towards the T-Rex, but when she was almost there the T-Rex suddenly turned away from Chomp and snapped at her with its powerful jaws, forcing her back every time she tried to get closer.

"That won't work!" Max called to me "Don't you have any Move Card you can use?"

"What's a Move Card?" I said in confusion. He quickly pulled out a card showing a Triceratops whose horns seemed to sparkle with lightning and held it up before me.

"It's a card that allows a dinosaur to perform a special attack, making it even stronger than before!" He explained.

"But where do I get a card like that?" I asked desperately.

"We got ours when we first found our dinosaur cards, didn't you get one when you found yours?" He replied.

"No, I don't think I did…" I said. Suddenly there was another roar and I saw in horror how the T-Rex swiped Aurora with its tail, causing her to fall down on the ground, and it once again turned its attention to Chomp, who still hadn't recovered from his sling across the street.

Rex and Zoe tried to call for Ace and Paris to help, but they both had their hands full fighting the Saichania and Spinosaurus, so they had no way of helping Chomp.

_This is bad…Really bad _I thought desperately _I have to do something…But what?_

Suddenly I felt something in the pocket of my jacket, and I put my hand into the pocket and pulled it out. In my hand I now held a card showing a Carnotaurus just like Ace swinging its tail, sending what looked like blades of wind towards another dinosaur. I guessed there was only one thing to do...

"Let's go, Aurora!" I called, swiping the card against the stone "Razor Wind!" Aurora suddenly glowed in a blue light, and in the next second she turned around and swung her tail, sending a flurry of knife-like gusts towards the T-Rex. The wind-blades hit it just as it was about to clamp it jaws around Chomp. It roared as the attack hit it, and fell on its side onto the ground, giving Chomp enough time to rise to his feet.

"All right!" Max cried "Now! Electric Charge!" He called, swiping the card he had shown me through his strange device. A bolt of lightning suddenly hit Chomp, and suddenly he seemed like he was enveloped with electricity. In the next second he charged at the T-Rex just as he was starting to rise again, sending a burst of lightning into the T-Rex as he slammed into it. The T-Rex fell shivering back onto the ground and suddenly there was a flash of light, and in the next second it had vanished and I could see a card slowly falling down onto the ground. I turned towards Rex and Zoe, and I noticed they both had pulled out a card and swiped it through their devices.

"Cyclone!" Called Rex. I saw how a whirlwind blew down from the sky, and quickly enveloped Ace. In the next second he rushed at the Saichania, and the force of the wind threw it high up in the air, and then crashing to the ground and in the next second there was another flash of light, and then it was just a card.

"Metal Wing!" Called Zoe. Suddenly I heard a swishing sound, and then something flew down from the dark sky. In the next second I realized it was three Pteranodons, and they all turned around in the air and began slashing the Spinosaurus with their wings, causing it to fall to the ground, and turning it into a card in another flash of light.

"Great work, guys!" Max said as he walked up to Rex and Zoe.

"No fair!" Ursula cried in frustration as she and the other two ran up to where the dinosaurs had been and picked up the cards "Two dinosaurs against my one Terry is totally cheating, you're playing dirty!"

"What was that?" Max said angrily, but before he could say anything else, I stepped up in front of him, looking right at them.

"You're using dinosaurs to do your dirty work for you. You try to take away my friend. And to top it all of you're trying to have me and Chomp eaten alive! You're in no position to call us cheap!" I said angrily.

"Yeah, that's for sure!" Zoe said.

"Why I ought to…" Ursula started when Aurora stepped up behind me and roared at her, causing her to flinch in fear.

"Don't think I'll forget this!" She cried and in the next second she had grabbed Ed and Zander by their neck collar and started running towards the forest "You'll be seeing us again!"

"But Ursula!" Zander said as she dragged him along "What are we going to say to Dr. Z when he finds out we didn't get the dinosaur?"

"Easy. I'll just say we found it, but then you two messed things up and it got away!" She replied.

"Say whaaat?" They both cried in unison.

"Well, do you have a better idea?" Ursula snapped back.

"Well, maybe…" Ed started.

"Oh, shut you trap and let's get out of here!" She said, and soon they had vanished amongst the trees. In the next second there was a loud noise and something that looked like a flying machine of some sort suddenly rose up from the forest, and flew shakily over the trees.

"And don't think I'll forget you, you new little brat!" I heard Ursula say as the flying machine vanished in the distance "You'll regret ever crossing the Alpha Gang, and don't you forget it!" And soon they where gone.

"Okay...They're nuts." I said as I gazed in the direction they went.

"You said it!" Max said.


	7. The second Stone

Chapter 7:

As I looked towards Max and the others I saw them all pressing a button on their devices, and suddenly the big dinosaurs in front of them vanished and in the next second they all stood with their cards in their hands. They all swiped them again, only this time I noticed they swiped them the other way, and in the next second the small dinosaurs from before appeared in front of them. I carefully grasped the Stone in my hand, and suddenly Aurora vanished as well, turning into a card. I swiped it backwards against the stone, and suddenly little Aurora stood in front of me. I turned towards them and smiled at them.

"Thanks a lot for all the help!" I said to them.

"Hey, you helped us just as much!" Max said with a big smile "Had it not been for you and Aurora, Chomp might have ended up on Terry's dinner plate!"

"Yeah, well, that was just once, Chomp saved me twice!" I said "First from that Ed guy and then he saved me from becoming dinosaur dinner!" We all looked at each other, and then we all started laughing. I was about to say something when suddenly I heard a door in the nearby house creaking, almost immediately followed by many more doors opening.

"What's going on here?" A voice said. I suddenly realized that the noise from the battle must have attracted the attention of the people living nearby. It wouldn't be good if they found out we were involved. It could be really troublesome…

"Let's get out of here!" I said quickly "We'll have to find somewhere where we can talk unnoticed!" Max and the others nodded, and they quickly followed me down the street.

We didn't stop until we had reached the other end of the street, several blocks away. We were now in the outskirts of town, with only a single street light lighting up the street, and right behind us the forest laid dark and deep. I leaned against a nearby tree, panting slightly after the run, and then I turned towards the others.

"I think this should be far enough..." I said. Suddenly I felt something tugging at my jeans, and I looked down. I noticed that it was Chomp pulling on my jeans, as if he was trying to get my attention. I wondered if he wanted to thank me for helping him… I leaned down to pet him, but just as my hand touched his forehead I recalled how he had tried to bite me last time I had tried to, and was about to pull my hand back. But this time he didn't try to bite me. He just closed his eyes and gave a content little sound as I stroke him, as if he enjoyed it. I smiled at him, but suddenly he grabbed my hand in his mouth. I was just about to pull back my hand when I realized it actually didn't hurt. It didn't feel like he was actually biting me at all, but he just gently nibbled my hand. Max walked up to us and picked up Chomp in his arms.

"Guess he wants to thank you for saving him." Max said with a little grin.

"No problem" I said smiling at him "Like I said; he saved me as well! And you two" I said turning to Rex and Zoe "Thank you, to. You were all amazing!"

"Hey, you sure weren't too bad, either!" Max said "For a first battle you did really well!"

"That's nice and all" I said with an uncertain smile "But I think it was a bit more luck than skill…"

"Come on, don't try to be modest now!" Zoe suddenly said as she walked up to me "You gave it your all, and thanks to you and Aurora we beat the Alpha Gang, it's as easy as that!"

"I agree" Rex said "And I have to say you standing up to them the way you did to protect Aurora was pretty cool."

"And I bet that Razor Wind took its toll on Terry!" Max said with a grin. I just stared at them, and then I smiled again. Guess there was nothing else I could do but to accept their thanks…

I bent down and picked up Aurora in my arms and then turned to them again.

"Looks like you got me" I said "But I don't think anyone can argue that the real reason we won was because we did it together!" They all looked at me and smiled.

"Yeah, that's for sure!" Max said and Rex and Zoe nodded in agreement. We all laughed again.

"_Jim?_" Aurora suddenly said "_What__ is __that?_" I looked down at her, and realized she was looking towards the sky. I looked up on it as well, and I immediately realized what had attracted her attention: Large colourful arches flowed slowly back and forth across the wide open sky: The Northern Light silently drew its beautiful pattern across the night sky.

"_It's __so __beautiful__…_" Aurora said quietly as she gazed up towards the sky "_Jim__…__What __is __it?_" She asked again.

"That's the Northern Lights…" I said, unable to take my eyes of it.

"_So __that's __what __you __named __me __after?_" Aurora said in amazement.

"Yes…" I said slowly "Yes, it is…And I don't regret choosing that name for you one bit…" She leaned her head against my cheek.

"_Thank __you, __Jim__…_" She said. I smiled and stroke her gently over her head. Max and the others seemed completely enchanted by the Northern Light as well, and they gazed in amazement at the sky above us. I had no idea how long we had been standing there when Max suddenly cleared his throat, making all of us jump in surprise.

"Sorry for interrupting…" He said "But there are still things I'd like to ask you, Jim." I took my eyes of the Northern Light, and instead I turned towards Max and the others.

"Well…As a matter of fact I have questions for you as well." I said.

"Okay, about what?" He asked.

"Well first of all" I said "What were those devices you used when you turned your dinosaurs big and then back into cards?" I asked.

"You mean these?" Zoe asked and pulled out her device and held it up in front of me.

"Yeah, just what exactly are they?" I asked.

"They're called DinoHolders" She replied "It's my sister, Reese, who made them. They are used to contain the Stone Plates and cards" She picked out the Pteranodon-card I had seen her use earlier and her Stone. As I looked at it I could see that this one had a green mark that looked like a bunch of grass "That makes them easier to use and carry around. They even tell us when another dinosaur appears, so they're pretty useful!" She finished as she placed the Stone back in its hatch.

"That looks really convenient!" I said "Wish I had one…"

"We might be able to get you one." Max said "Anyway, was there anything else you wanted to ask us about?"

"Yeah" I said "What was that "Dino Slash" you said before?" I asked.

"Well, that's just something Max came up with after obtaining Chomp, and we've used it ever since when we call out our dinosaurs." Rex quickly explained.

"Good. Now I have just one more question: Just what is the deal with those Stones and the cards?" I asked.

"Well…To be honest we don't fully understand it either…" Max said "All we do know is that the Stones and cards have some kind of connection to the dinosaurs, and that it's the Stones that allow us to bring the dinosaur in the card back to life. But we still don't know how they work or where they come from to begin with. That's why my dad and Zoe's sister works so hard on finding out." He finished.

"Well, that's pretty much it" I said "I guess I'll just have to learn more as I go along…"

"Now I'd like to ask you something." Max suddenly said "I want to know how you can have a Stone that looks exactly like Rex's."

"I have no clue" I said immediately "I already told you it just were in my pocket when I woke up after passing out. I didn't even know what it was first."

"Do you think you could let me borrow it for a second?" Max asked. I looked at him.

"Sure, why not?" I said and picked it out of my pocket and handed it to him.

"What are you planning to do, Max?" Zoe asked.

"I want to know if it really is the same as our Stones" He replied "Could you take out your Stone, Rex?" Rex picked up his Dino Holder and opened the hatch in it, taking out the Stone. As he held it up in front of my Stone in Max's hand I could see that they were pretty much completely identical.

"Here" Max said, handing Rex my Stone "Try calling out Ace with it." Rex nodded and using his own Stone he turned Ace back into a card. Then he swiped it over mine. Nothing happened. He tried it again with the same result.

"Maybe it only works with Aurora…" Zoe suggested.

"But it usually works on all dinosaurs of the matching element, and both Ace and Aurora are Wind-attribute, so that doesn't really make sense…" Rex said as he used his own Stone to call Ace back out.

"Try using it on Aurora, then" Max said "I mean…If that's okay with you…" He said to me in apologising kind of way. I looked down on Aurora, who nodded.

"Well…All right." I said. Rex handed me my Stone, and I grasped it lightly, turning Aurora back into a card, and then I handed both of them to Rex. First he swiped her card against his own Stone, but once again nothing happened. Oddly, the same thing happened when he tried doing the same using my Stone…

"Okay, this is odd…" Zoe said "It worked just fine when you did it…" She said to me.

"Let me try." Max said and took the Stone and Aurora's card out of Rex's hand. He swiped it, but once again nothing happened.

"It's no use…Zoe, you give it a try…" He said handing the card and Stone to her. Nothing happened when she swiped it either.

"Maybe there's something wrong with it…" Max said.

"Let me try." I said and took the Stone and card back. I swiped it, and almost immediately there was a blaze of light and little Aurora once again stood in front of me. Max and the others stared.

"How come it works now?" Max said in surprise.

"This is really strange…" Zoe said.

"So does this mean that your Stone only works for calling out Aurora, and only if it's done by you…?" Rex said slowly "If that's the case that Stone can't be the same as ours…" None of us said anything for a while.

"Well, maybe we should be heading back home…" Zoe said after a while "We know now that the dinosaur we located won't hurt anyone, so perhaps we should head back and get some rest?"

"Good idea" Max said "It's getting dark and we didn't even have time to eat dinner…"

"Well, let's get going, then." Rex said.

"Hold on!" I said, suddenly remembering something "I have one more thing I want to ask you!" They all turned towards me.

"Okay, what is that?" Max asked. I hesitated.

"Well…" I said "Earlier you said something about something called the D-Team, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Max said.

"Do you think…I could be in it to?" I said, feeling almost embarrassed to ask. They all looked at me.

"Of course!" Max said "You do have a dinosaur just like we do, and you really helped us out against the Alpha Gang, so it would be great having you on board!"

"I agree!" Zoe said, smiling at me.

"No doubt" Rex said "It would be great to have you as one of us!" I couldn't help but feeling all warm inside.

"Thanks a lot!" I said "Thank you all!" Max walked up to me.

"If you're going to be one of us, you'll need this!" He said and picked something up from his pocket, and handed it to me. I looked at it. It was a gold badge shaped like a D, with three triangles in a row along the edge, forming what looked like a dinosaur footprint.

"Wow, thanks!" I said, holding it up towards the street light.

"But remember" Max said, a little bit more seriously this time "That as part of the D-Team you're required to protect any and all dinosaurs no matter what." I nodded resolutely.

"You can count on it!" I said "I swear I'll do my very best to protect Aurora and all other dinosaurs to!" Max seemed pleased over hearing it.

"That's just what I wanted to hear!" He said "Now, until we meet again, Jim…" He said as he, Rex and Zoe pressed a button on their Dino Holders and then…

They where gone! I blinked a couple of times. It was as if though they had just vanished into thin air! What did they just do?

Suddenly I glanced at my wrist watch, and realized it was already past ten, meaning I had been away for almost three hours!

"Come on" I said to Aurora, who had returned to watch the Northern Light "We better get back home, I bet mum's worried!" She looked up on me and nodded, and we both ran of. As we ran I glanced back toward the trees, wondering just what Max, Rex and Zoe had done to just vanish like that, and where they could be now…

As I and Aurora walked up to the door of our house, I immediately spotted mum in the window, and in the next second she opened the door and rushed outside, hugging me.

"Oh, Jim, I was so worried…" She murmured "Where have you been?"

"It's all right mum" I said as she released me "I just thought I'd show Aurora the Northern Light, and I lost track of time…"

"Well, that's a relief" She said "I heard there was some sort of ruckus going on nearby, and I was afraid you might have gotten involved…"

"Really?" I said, trying not to sound nervous "I didn't hear anything…" I said. She looked at me.

"Well, either way you should go to bed as soon as you can, you know I don't want you to be up too late…" She said.

"Okay, you got it." I replied as she, I and Aurora walked inside.

I quickly went up to my room and changed to go to bed. I noticed mum had prepared a bed for Aurora with an old clothes basket and some pillows and blankets. I looked sceptically at it, and then I moved it away: I couldn't see why Aurora couldn't sleep with me in my bed. I crawled into bed, putting the blanket over my body. Aurora just stood on the floor, looking uncertainly at me.

"Come on" I said "You can sleep here with me." She gave me another uncertain look.

"_Are __you __sure __that's __okay?_" She said carefully.

"Of course!" I said, and then I reached down, lifting her up onto the bed. She carefully touched the mattress and pillow with her feet.

"_Hey, __this __feels __really __nice__…_" She said, as she laid down beside me, rolling up almost like a cat. I smiled at her, and turned of the light and placed my head on the pillow, closing my eyes. But almost immediately I felt something nudging my cheek, and quickly turned on the light again. I immediately realized it had been Aurora puffing on my cheek with her nose.

"What is it? Is there something wrong?" I asked worriedly.

"_No__…__It's __just __that__…__I __just __wanted __to __say__…__Good night, __Jim__…_" She said carefully. I looked at her in confusion, and then I smiled again and rubbed her head.

"Goodnight, Aurora" I said, and then I turned of the light again and once again laid down on the pillow "My wonderful Aurora…" I murmured.

"_Thank __you, __Jim__…_" I heard her say in the darkness. Judging from her breaths, she fell asleep almost immediately, but I laid awake for a while in the darkness. I was thinking about everything that had happened today: Collapsing and ending up in the Jurassic period, being saved from that Ceratosaurus by Aurora, suddenly ending up in the present again, meeting Max, Rex and Zoe and fighting the Alpha Gang...

I picked out the badge I had received from Max, and clutched it in my hand, realizing I was now one of them, a part of the D-Team. I wasn't quite sure why I had been so eager to join them in the first place. Protecting the dinosaurs would without a doubt be anything but easy, but for some reason it had just felt right. I placed the badge on my bedside table and leaned back against the pillow, closing my eyes, and after a few minutes I was sleeping with Aurora right beside me.

Something was moving in the forest. A shadowy figure moved silently amongst the trees, careful not to walk out into the light. It glanced through the trees towards the house in which Jim had just turned of the light to go to sleep.

"It took quite a while…" It said as it glanced towards the now dark house "But I've finally found you…"


	8. Masking up the truth

Chapter 8:

The weekend passed by quickly and soon it was time for me to head back to school again. Seeing how things had been so tough already the first week at senior high school, I would usually have thought it would be a pain, but now I didn't: I realized that now that I had Aurora to think about, it was somehow easier to bear with it. I knew I couldn't possibly bring her with me to school, since animals weren't allowed there and I didn't want to risk anyone finding out the truth about her. And neither did I want to bring her card or the Stone, as I didn't want to risk them getting stolen and end up in the wrong hands. But simply thinking about her and knowing she was waiting for me at home was somehow more than enough to make me feel at peace even in the most boring classes. Some of my classmates quickly noticed my sudden change in attitude, and they immediately asked what was going on with me. To that I simply replied I was just happy over my new pet. Most of them, especially those who already had a cat or a dog, just shrugged, apparently oblivious to how a pet could make you better at holding out in school. Others seemed almost impressed and asked if they could see it sometime, to which I simply replied "Maybe…"

I had been very careful to make mum believe Aurora actually was a dog, so I had started to get up earlier every morning and went out on walks with her around town, showing her everything there was to see, and mum simply seemed to think I was just taking a walk with the dog, and somehow Aurora played along perfectly. Despite that I sometimes found myself wondering how much longer it would take before mum figured out what she really was...

Aurora obviously didn't like being at home in the house without me at first, but after just a few days she had started to turn out pretty fine on her own. Nevertheless it was obvious she preferred having me around, because every day when I returned home she would instantly come running, rubbing her head against my leg and wanted me to be with her. I loved it. I just couldn't seem to find words to describe how much I liked her and how wonderful she was...

On my spare time I spent all my time with her taking long walks or we could just sit in my room for hours talking about whatever we could come up with. And when we couldn't do that because I had to study, she would crawl up on my chair and roll up in my lap. For some reason having her there made me feel calm and relaxed and it was much easier to concentrate than before, so even homework was easier with her around. As she laid there I would occasionally pat her on the head or her back, to which she usually responded by affectionately rubbing her head on my hand. One time we had both fallen asleep while she was laying there on my lap, only to be woken up by mum, once again commenting on how cute we looked together…

* * *

><p>The week went by fast and before I knew it, it was Friday again. I sat in the classroom with the others waiting for John, when suddenly he walked into the classroom with a stressed look on his face.<p>

"Listen up! I have something I need to tell you all" He said "I just got to know from the headmaster that my meeting with him has been moved from next week till today. Since there's no supply teacher I'm afraid you'll have to go home earlier today, so I'll see you next week!" But I could clearly hear it in his voice that he knew we had no problems with going home earlier…

_Great _I thought _Now I'll get even more time to spend with Aurora! _And I quickly packed up my books and hurried to my locker to get my jacket.

* * *

><p>As I opened the door I noticed mum wasn't home, and I remembered she had said she would work late today.<p>

"_Jim? Is that you?_" Suddenly I heard Auroras voice, and in the next second she came running up to me and started to rub her head against my leg. I smiled and picked her up in my arms and rubbed her gently on the head, and she licked me on the cheek.

"Do you want to go out on a walk?" I asked as I put her down after she stopped licking me "I could show you the forest this time."

"_Yes, please!_" She said, sounding very eager. I couldn't help but laughing a bit.

* * *

><p>And so we went outside, walking down the street towards the forest. Since I had had work to do due to school, I hadn't been able to take Aurora out on a walk in the forest yet, so I was pretty happy I finally got a chance to.<p>

Aurora looked around curiously as we walked in between the trees; following a path I knew led into the deeper part of the forest where there was a small lake, close to the foot of the mountain. It was a pretty long path, but since it was still just a few minutes past twelve, there was no risk we wouldn't be able to get back before dark this time. Today was also a very nice day: Despite it being rather chilly in the air the sun had decided to peek out, warming us as we walked. I could even hear a bird chirping somewhere. As we went deeper into the forest Aurora once again began sniffing the air and she stopped to listen when a bush suddenly rustled, and she jumped in surprise when a twig I stepped on suddenly broke. After walking for almost an hour we decided to take a rest. I sat down on a mossy rock, and Aurora settled down beside me. For a moment we just sat there listening and looking around.

"So? What do you think?" I asked Aurora.

"_I love it!_" She said happily, but suddenly her face changed and she almost seemed like she was drifting away or something.

"Hey, is there something wrong?" I asked worriedly. She blinked and looked up at me.

"_No, I'm fine..."_ She said "_It's just that…This place sort of reminds me of…Home…_"

I looked at her and quickly understood what she meant: As well as she had adapted to living here with me, houses and towns and stuff like that were not exactly a common sight for a dinosaur, was it? The forest would obviously be the closest thing you could get to the Jurassic period around here.

"Are you missing home?" I asked her. She looked at me again.

"_Well…Maybe a little…_" She said at last.

"I see…" I said, looking down on the ground. Suddenly Aurora placed her head on my lap and gave me a soothing look.

"_But I'm happy to be here to…_" She said softly "_And I'm glad to be with you, Jim…_"

"Thanks…" I murmured while smiling gratefully, stoking her gently over her back "I'm glad you think so…"

She just rested her head on my lap as I stroke her.

"Well" I said after a while "Let's keep going. Where almost at the mountain."

* * *

><p>After walking for a few minutes we reached the lake close to the mountain. As I gazed up towards them, Aurora bent over the lake to drink. I took my eyes of the mountain and instead I looked around the nearby forest. I laughed a little. Aurora looked up from the lake.<p>

"_What is it?_" She asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Nothing" I said quickly "It's just that…Being here kind of reminds me of how we first met each other…" She looked around as well.

"_Yes, I see what you mean…_" She said, and for the first time I thought I actually heard what sounded like a laugh from her "_I took you to a clearing almost exactly like this one after rescuing you from that Ceratosaurus…_"

"Yeah, first I was afraid you would eat me, but instead we became friends, and I ended up sleeping by your side that night..." I said.

"_And then you gave me my name..._" She said softly "_And then we both ended up back here in your time..._"

Once again we just stood there for a while.

"_Jim?_" Aurora said after a while "_Do you think there will be more Northern Lights tonight?_"

"Maybe..." I said while smiling "You really liked it that much?"

"_It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!_" She said happily "_I had no idea such a beautiful thing actually existed...And I still can't believe you actually named me after them..."_

I picked her up in my arms, hugging her tightly, and she once again licked me on the cheek.

"I still can't tell how happy I am over meeting you, Aurora…" I murmured.

"_And I don't know how to tell you how happy I am for being your friend, Jim…_" She said quietly.

I just stood there with her in my arms, hoping this moment would never end…

"Well, looks like someone's" having a really good time!" A voice suddenly called. I jumped in surprise and whirled around with Aurora still in my arms. I looked around wildly, but I couldn't see anyone around, yet I was certain the voice had come from nearby…

"Who's there?" I called "Show yourself!" No sooner had I said it before someone stepped out from behind a tree. I looked at the person standing in front of me: Whoever it was were wearing what looked like a black, long-sleeved coat, reaching all the way down to the ground and black gloves. Over its head it wore a black hood, along with a strange-looking mask that appeared to be made out of some kind of red metal, with narrow slits for the eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked "What do you want?" Whoever it was just stood there looking at me.

"Those are no-need-to-know-questions." The person replied. Judging from the voice I guessed that it was a boy at about 16, just like me. At closer inspection I realized he was even exactly as tall as me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. He didn't answer, and suddenly he just turned around.

"Come on" He said "Let's get going!"

"What?" I said in confusion.

"I need you to come with me." He replied.

"Why?" I asked, still confused.

"Don't ask. Just come on!" He said.

"No." I replied "I don't even know who you are or what you want!"

"Come on, don't make this harder than it has to be, time's a wasting, Gust!" He said, now sounding impatient.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Gust. That's your name, remember?" He replied.

"I'm not Gust, my name's Jim" I said "You must have me mistaken for someone else…"

"No, you're the one I'm after." He said "That dinosaur you're holding in your arms is more than enough proof." He said and pointed towards Aurora. I felt a chill running through me. He knew Aurora was…?

"Yes, I know it's a dinosaur." He said, almost as if he had read my mind "And it along with the Stone you have proves you're the one I'm looking for, so you have to come with me!"

"No!" I said, as I tried to take it all in: He knew about Aurora _and_ the Stone? What could it all mean? "Tell me who you are and how you know all this! Then I might consider coming along with you."

"What a pain in the neck…" He sighted "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but…" And then he reached his hand into his coat and pulled out something. He held it up in front of me and I realized what it was: It was a stone just like the one I had, and the ones I had seen Max and the others have! Only this one had a red pattern resembling a fireball…

In the next second he pulled out something else from his coat, and I immediately saw that it was a card, and in the next second he swiped it on the stone in his hand. There was a blaze of red light, and in the next second a large dinosaur stood in front of me! Its body was intensively red with large dots of purple, while its head was mainly purple with white and red markings. And its eyes leering at me was small and yellow. It looked very much like the T-Rex I had fought when I first met the Alpha Gang, but it was smaller and had a sleeker, more agile-looking body, and a much more slender snout. I quickly remembered seeing this dinosaur in books and on TV: It was an Albertosaurus!

"No way!" I gasped as it towered over me. The masked boy stepped up beside the Albertosaurus.

"Like I said, I don't have all time in the world" He said "You're coming with me whether you want to or not! Then I'll answer your questions..."


	9. To the rescue

Chapter 9:

I stepped backwards in surprise and terror as the Albertosaurus towered over me. Just like she had done during our encounter with Terry, Aurora began growling at the Albertosaurus, but just like Terry it didn't even seem to notice. I looked around wildly, desperately trying to come up with something. _If I could just make it back into the forest…_ I thought _Maybe I could shake it of… _For some reason the Albertosaurus didn't seem interested in attacking me, it just stood there in front of me looking straight at me. _Well…Here goes nothing… _I thought, and was just about to make a dash towards the trees when, suddenly, the Albertosaurus made a quick rush and before I had even taken two steps it was in front of me, blocking my way.

"Don't even think about it!" The masked boy said "The only way you're leaving here is if it's along with me to where I chose!"

"I already told you I'm not coming with you!" I said.

"You don't have a choice in the matter!" He replied "I won't let you leave, and that's that!"

I gritted my teeth. What should I do?

"_Jim_" Aurora suddenly said from my arms "_I don't think there's any other way: We'll have to fight him!_" I gave her an uncertain look.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked "If we do, you might get hurt…

"_I know that, it's just that…I don't want anything to happen to you…_" She said. I looked at her. There was a clear look of determination in her eyes, and suddenly I remembered how she had promised to protect me back when I was still trapped in the Jurassic period…

"All right…" I said "Guess your right!" She nodded and quickly jumped out of my arms down onto the ground. I quickly pulled out the Stone from my pocket, and squeezed it in my hand, turning Aurora back into a card. I then quickly swiped it on the Stone.

"All right!" I said "Let's go, Aurora!" And in the next second Aurora stood in front of me, fully grown and ready for battle.

* * *

><p>"Are you really sure, Reese?" Zoe asked her sister as she sat in front of the D-Lab's computer.<p>

"There's no doubt about it." Reese replied in her usual monotone "The signal's definitely coming from the same place…"

"Do you think it could be Jim and Aurora again?" Max asked.

"I seriously doubt that, Max" Rex said "Last time he released her was an accident, and he sure didn't seem like the kind of guy to send out his dinosaur without good reason."

"Yeah, you got a point there…" Max said slowly. Zoe suddenly got a terrified look on her face.

"What if he's fighting the Alpha Gang!" She gasped "They know he has a dinosaur, so maybe they're trying to steal Aurora again!"

"Well, either way we have to get there!" Max said "If Jim is really involved that's just all the more reason to. After all, he IS one of us now!" Rex and Zoe both nodded, and they all rushed to the teleporter, closely followed by Chomp, Ace and Paris.

"Hold on." Reese said and rose from her chair "If you see that boy Jim, give him this." She said, handing Max a package wrapped in brown paper.

"Hey, is this…?" Max said as he turned the package in his hands.

"Yes." Reese replied shortly "It's Jim's new DinoHolder. After what you told me last week I found it best to make sure he got one as well. After all, if there really are more Stones like the ones you have it just might mean something…"

"Yeah, but what do you think it means?" Zoe asked.

"Hey, there's no time for that now!" Rex said "We have to get over there! Jim might need our help!"

"Yeah, you're right." Max said "Let's go!"

* * *

><p>"Aw, come on…" The masked boy sighted "Do you really have to be this troublesome, Gust?"<p>

"I don't care who you think I am, my name is not Gust! It's Jim!" I shouted at him.

"Guess I'll have to do this the hard way then…" The masked boy said, turning to the Albertosaurus "Take down that Allosaurus" He said to it "But don't hurt it too badly, we have to bring both of them back in one piece." The Albertosaurus now turned towards Aurora, baring its teeth and growling at her. Then, before I could react, it rushed right at her with a loud roar and its jaws wide open. Luckily Aurora was able to react just in time, and jumped out of the way, causing the Albertosaurus to bite right into a large tree.

"Are you all right?" I called worriedly as the Albertosaurus released its grip of the tree, which now had large gashes in the trunk, and turned towards Aurora again.

"_Don't worry, I'm fine._" She replied, but despite her words I couldn't help but feeling worried…

"Impressive, that dinosaur of yours has quite the reflexes!" The masked boy said, now sounding almost amused "It will be a great help once you two join up with me!"

"Didn't I tell you to give it up?" I said irritably "I won't join you!"

"And didn't I tell _you_ there's no choice?" He replied shortly.

"Oh, yeah?" I said as I pulled out the Razor Wind-card I had found a week ago from my pocket. I looked at it for a split second before turning to Aurora.

"You ready for this?" I said as I prepared to slash the card.

"_Yes._" She said.

"All right! Go! Razor Wind!" I called, swiping the card against the Stone. Aurora once again began to glow in a blue light, and then she quickly spun around, and with a couple of swift swings of her tail she sent a flurry of blade-like winds towards the Albertosaurus.

But when the wind-blades was just a few inches away from the Albertosaurus it quickly dashed aside, making the blades hit a nearby group of trees, cutting them off on the middle.

"No way!" I cried.

"I have to admit that wasn't a bad move" The masked boy said "But I'm afraid my Albertosaurus might be a bit too fast for your Allosaurus..."

_Not good…_ I thought, the Stone and card still in my hand _If that won't work, then what?_

"And if you thought you were the only one with a card up your sleeve…" He continued "Then you're wrong!" Suddenly he pulled out another card from his coat and quickly swiped it on his Stone.

"Fire Cannon!" He called. Suddenly the Albertosaurus began glowing in a red light, and then it opened its jaws again, and I stared in disbelief as a large, glowing fireball began to form in its mouth. In the next second I realized what it was going to do.

"Aurora!" I cried "Watch out!" No sooner had I said it before the Albertosaurus suddenly threw its head forward, causing the fireball to shoot out towards Aurora. My warning had come just in the nick of time: Aurora quickly jumped out of the way and the fireball passed just a few centimetres away from her, and flew towards the lake. A cascade of water and steam shot up as it hit the surface of the water, and to my horror I realized the water were the fireball had hit was actually boiling...

"Whew, that was close…" I said as I stared at the surface of the lake.

"You let your guard down!" The masked boy suddenly called, and in the next second there was a loud roar, and Aurora crashed to the ground, landing on her side right in front of me.

"Aurora! No! Are you all right?" I cried desperately, but before she could answer me, the Albertosaurus suddenly stepped up in front of us, and in the next second it had placed one of its huge feet on Aurora's neck. Aurora roared as she struggled to get free, but the Albertosaurus just pushed her even harder against the ground, preventing her from getting away.

"_Jim…Help me…_" Aurora said weakly as the Albertosaurus kept her firmly pinned to the ground. I was totally stunned. What should I do? What _could_ I possibly do against the Albertosaurus…?

"Looks like you're out of options" The masked boy said triumphantly as he walked up beside the Albertosaurus "Now then, are you going to come with me or what? You do realize your friends life depends on it, right?"

"Wait a second!" I said as wave of terror welled up inside me "I thought you said you needed both of us!"

"Not necessarily." He replied coldly "What really matters is that I get you and the Stone. I can always get you a new dinosaur, should worst come to worst…"

"You couldn't…You wouldn't…" I said, staring at him in horror.

"If you really want your friend back in one piece, you know what you have to do…" He said "Just come along with me and nothing will happen to her…" I bit my lip. I had just no idea what to do or say. I just stood there staring at him.

"Would you hurry up, Gust?" He said impatiently "I can't stand here all day, you know…"

Suddenly something came rushing out from the forest, slamming into the Albertosaurus's side and making it to fall crashing to the ground. It was a large blue dinosaur with two short, yellow horns jutting out from above its eyes…

"Carnotaurus?" I said in amazement "But how…?"

"Jim! Jim! Are you okay?" A voice suddenly called. I whirled around and my heart instantly made a leap out of joy: I saw Max, Rex and Zoe come running towards me with Chomp and Paris following close behind, which had to mean that the Carnotaurus that just save Aurora from the Albertosaurus had to be Ace. I quickly rushed up to Aurora who was still on the ground after being pinned down by the Albertosaurus.

"_Jim…_" She said weakly as I kneeled down beside her.

"Aurora…" I murmured "Please hang in there…"

"Don't worry, Jim, she'll be okay!" I looked up and saw Zoe and Paris standing in front of me. Zoe had picked out her DinoHolder, and before I had a chance to say anything she had pulled out a card and swiped it.

"Nature's Blessing!" She called "Heal Aurora, Paris!" Paris suddenly glowed in a green light, and in the next second she sent a swirl of glowing leaves towards Aurora that quickly enveloped her, and in the next second Aurora opened her eyes up wide, quickly rising back to her feet fully restored!

"Wow, thanks a lot!" I said to Zoe "I had no idea she could do that!"

"Don't mention it!" She said. I hesitated for a while.

"No offense…" I said "But what are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" Max said as he and Rex ran up to me as well "We're here to help you, of course!"

"Yeah, but how did you know I was here? And how could you know I was in trouble in the first place?" I asked.

"Did you forget what we told you last time?" Zoe asked and held up her DinoHolder again "Our DinoHolders shows us whenever a dinosaur appears, so finding out was no problem!"

"And seeing that it came from here again, and knowing you'd hardly send out Aurora without good reason, we kind of figured something was wrong, so we teleported her as quickly as we could!" Rex added. _Teleported…_ I thought _That explains how they just vanished last time…_

"Why am I not surprised you decided to show up…" The masked boy said irritably as he stepped up in front of us.

"Who are you?" Max said immediately. He didn't answer.

"He's the one that sent out that dinosaur" I said, nodding at the Albertosaurus still laying on the ground "And not only that: He has a Stone just like ours, and its got a Fire-symbol on it." They all stared at me.

"But that's impossible…" Zoe said slowly "The Alpha Gang already has the Fire Stone, right?"

"Does that mean this guy's with the Alpha Gang?" Max said.

"The Alpha Gang?" The masked boy said "Are you referring to those three clowns you and Gust fought earlier?" Max looked confused.

"Who is Gust?" He said.

"For some reason he keeps calling me that…" I said "But he just won't tell me why."

"Just who is he, anyways?" Rex asked.

"I have no idea" I replied "He just showed up and started going on about that I had to come along with him, and when I refused he sent out his Albertosaurus to attack Aurora…"

"To answer your question" The masked boy interrupted "I have no connection to those fools calling themselves the Alpha Gang, I came here on my own accords."

"So what is it you're after?" Zoe said.

"I already told you, didn't I?" He replied shortly "I'm here to get him." He said and pointed at me.

"Yeah, but when are you going to tell me why?" I shouted at him.

"You already know the answer to that, don't you, Gust?" He replied. Suddenly the Albertosaurus rose back to its feet and let out a loud roar.

"Looks like we'll have to deal with that Albertosaurus first…" Max said as he pulled out the Electric Charge-card I had seen him use against Terry. Chomp, Ace and Paris all turned towards the Albertosaurus, and Aurora quickly joined up with them. Suddenly a thought crossed my mind.

"Hold on!" I said "I just realized…We can't fight that thing here! We have to get that Albertosaurus to the mountain!" They all looked at me in surprise, but I didn't take any notice of it and turned towards Aurora "Please, you have to trust me…" She also looked surprised, but she still nodded.

"_All right_" She said "_If you say so, it's probably for the best…_" I gave her a grateful look.

"Okay!" I said, turning to the others "Let's go!" I quickly turned around and started running along the shore of the lake and into the forest with Aurora following. Max, Rex and Zoe seemed to hesitate for a short while, but soon they decided to follow me, along with Chomp, Ace and Paris.


	10. Sinister secrets

Chapter 10:

"Don't think you're getting away!" The masked boy called as he started running after us, followed by the Albertosaurus.

"What are you up to?" Max asked as he caught up with me and Aurora "Why do we have to lure that dinosaur to the mountain?"

"Easy" I said as I glanced back to see if the Albertosaurus was still following "That Albertosaurus had a really nasty Move called Fire Cannon…"

"Yeah, I know that Move, but what does it have to do with this?" Zoe said as she ran up beside Max along with Rex, obviously hearing what I had just said.

"Wait, guys" Rex said "I think I get it…"

"If it were to use that move again it might put the whole forest on fire" I said "And if that were to happen we might all end up trapped in the fire with no way out, and that's definitely a risk we can't afford to take…" Max and Zoe stared at me, but Rex just nodded, so I supposed he had thought about the very same thing.

"So that's why you said to fight it at the mountain!" Zoe said.

"I never even thought about that…" Max said "Good thinking, Jim!"

"Yeah, I can't risk any of us or our dinosaurs getting hurt again!" I said as I kept running. Max looked at me again, and suddenly he smiled at me.

"Sounds like you've already learned what being a member of the D-Team is all about" He said "Always thinking about what's best for the dinosaurs and always trying to protect them from harm!" When I heard that I couldn't help but feeling happy, but I quickly had to forget about it as I saw that we had reached the end of the forest, and in the next second we had arrived at the foot of the mountain. We all stopped and turned around, facing towards the forest, and in the next second the Albertosaurus came bursting out from the trees with a loud roar, closely followed by the masked boy.

"I don't know what you're up to, but I won't take my eyes of the prize" He said while panting slightly "You're not getting away from me, Gust!"

"You know, that's really getting old!" I said irritably.

"Whatever" He said "Can we get just back to where we started?"

"You bet!" Max said "Now that you can't use your fire to trap us, you better believe we're ready for you!"

"Ah, so that's why you ran away!" The masked boy said understandingly "Not too shabby. Of course, I couldn't care less where we're battling…"

"Then let's get going, Chomp!" Max said. Chomp nodded, and in the next second he charged at the Albertosaurus. The Albertosaurus easily dodged his attack, and Chomp quickly turned around, charging at it again, but once again it dodged.

"That won't work!" I said "We need to attack faster; otherwise it won't do any good!"

"In that case" Rex said "Let's have Ace and Aurora try to slow that Albertosaurus down." I looked at him and nodded.

"All right, got it!" I said and turned to Aurora "You up for this?" She nodded.

"Okay, Ace, let's go!" Rex called. Ace rushed towards the Albertosaurus along with Aurora. Although the Albertosaurus was still busy dodging Chomp's attack it was somehow still able to spot Ace and Aurora running towards it, and quickly took a step aside to face them. Ace and Aurora split up, both running up on each of the Albertosaurus's sides. It looked at both of them, obviously not sure which one of them to attack, but suddenly it charged right at Ace. No sooner had it began moving towards him, however, before Aurora rushed at it from behind, and just as it opened its jaws to attack Ace, she slammed into its side, sending it crashing to the ground right in front of Ace. It quickly rose to its feet and dove towards Aurora, but before it was able to reach her, Ace had grabbed its tail in his jaws, preventing it from reaching her. It roared in pain and anger and tried to kick Ace, but he quickly let go of its tail and jumped out of the way. Aurora caught on quickly and rammed the Albertosaurus's side with her head, and since it hadn't placed its foot down yet, it lost balance and fell to the ground again. Once again it rose to its feet, but I noticed its breathing had become heavier, meaning it was definitely beginning to tire.

"I think its working!" I cried.

"Fire Cannon!" The masked boy suddenly called, swiping the card on the Fire Stone in his hand. The Albertosaurus once again opened its jaws as a large fireball began to form in it, and in the next second it fired the ball towards Ace and Aurora. They both jumped out of the way, causing the fireball to fly past them and crash into the side of the mountain, where it exploded, making a cascade of rocks and earth shoot up in the air, but it was too far away to do any kind of damage to Chomp, Ace, Paris or Aurora. The Albertosaurus once again roared furiously, but once again I could tell it was gasping from exhaustion.

"Looks like he's running out of power!" Rex called "Now's your chance, Max!"

"Okay! Lightning Strike!" Max called, swiping another card through his DinoHolder. Chomp once again began to glow in a yellow light, and in the next second he fired a burst of lightning from his horns, this time hitting the Albertosaurus. It roared out loud as the lightning hit it, and it slumped to the ground, but suddenly it rose back to its feet!

"No way!" Max cried.

"Wait, I think it worked, we just need to hit it one more time!" Rex said.

"Then leave that to me!" I said as I pulled out the Stone from my pocket again "Now let's make him pay for what he did to you, Aurora! Razor Wind!" Aurora once again swung her tail, causing more wind-blades to fly towards the Albertosaurus. The blades hit the Albertosaurus head on, and it once again roared in pain and slumped to the ground again. It twitched for a second, but suddenly there was a blaze of red light and it turned back into a card.

"Yeah! We did it! We won!" Max shouted raising his fist into the air.

"Yeah, we sure did!" I said.

"Oh well, I guess that's that…" The masked boy said as he walked up to where the Albertosaurus had collapsed and picked up its card "I guess I'll take my leave…"

"Hold on a second!" Zoe said "You've got some explaining to do! Just who are you? And how come you have that Fire Stone?"

"Yeah, and why did you attack Jim?" Rex said as he stepped up beside Zoe.

"That's right!" I said as I and Max joined up with them "You definitely owe me some answers!" The masked boy just looked towards us.

"Well, I suppose you deserve some credit for defeating me…" He said at last "Very well, my name is Blaze and I'm part of an organisation called the Masked Knights. I came here to convince Gust there to come back to us. You got all that?" He said, pointing at us.

"The Masked Knights?" I repeated "And what do you mean "come back"? I've never even heard of it!"

"Of course you haven't" He said, snorting at my answer "You don't even know who you really are, now do you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked angrily.

"I'm not telling!" He said.

"Tell us!" Max said. He just looked at him.

"It's been fun chatting with you" He said mockingly "But I'm afraid I'm all out of time today!" He turned around and looked as if he was about to run of, but suddenly he turned around again "Oh, almost forgot" He said and put a hand into his coat "This didn't really go the way I thought it would, but I was ordered to give you this…" And then he suddenly threw something towards me. whatever it had been landed on the ground in front of me, and I picked it up. I now held a card in my hand showing a Szechuanosaurus ram into another dinosaur while surrounded by an intense wind...

"Turbo Tackle?" I read "But why are you giving me this?" I asked incredulously.

"I already told you: It was an order." He replied "Now that that's taken care of, I'll take my leave…"

"Not so fast!" I said "You still have things to explain!"

"Don't worry" He said "We will meet again…"

"Wait! Hold on…"

"Goodbye." He said, snapping his fingers, and in the next second…He was gone!

"Hey! Where did he go?" Max cried as he ran up to where the masked boy had been standing a second ago.

"He just vanished…" Zoe said "But how did he do that?"

"Well, it looks like he won't bother us again" Rex said "So I think we're safe for now…"

I grasped the Stone in my hand to turn Aurora back into a card, and swiped it to make her appear in her small form. As Max and the others did the same, I walked up to Aurora and picked her up in my arms.

"Aurora…" I murmured "Thank goodness you're all right…"

"_It's all right, Jim…_" She said and gave me a lick on the cheek "_It's over now…_" I smiled and hugged her tightly.

"Just who on earth was that guy?" Max suddenly said as he and the others walked up to me.

"I don't know" I replied as I put Aurora back down "But from what he just told me it sounds like he thought I used to be part of that group The Masked Knights he was talking about, or something like that…"

"He must have mistaken you for someone else!" Max said immediately "That's the only reasonable explanation!"

"No." I said "I thought so first as well, but then it turned out he knew about Aurora and he knew I had the Stone, so I don't think he was telling lies…"

"He knew you had a dinosaur _and_ that you had the Stone?" Zoe said in surprise "But how could he know that?"

"Not to mention he had a Stone exactly like the Fire Stone the Alpha Gang has" Rex said "Does that mean there are other Stones exactly like the rest? This all seems fishy…"

"Well, either way, I think we should get out of here before someone shows up and asks us about that" I said and nodded towards the mountain where the rockslide caused by the Fire Cannon-attack had ripped a large chunk out of the mountain "Otherwise we might get even more trouble on our hands..."

"Hold on, Jim!" Max said as I was about to turn around and walk back towards the forest "Before you leave, I've got something for you." He said, handing me a package wrapped in brown paper. I gave him a surprised look, but took it in my hands and un-wrapped it.

"What the…" I said. In my hand I now held a device exactly like the DinoHolders I had seen them use ever since I met them "Is this…?"

"Yup!" Max said and smiled at me "Your very own DinoHolder!"

"That's almost too nice…" I said "Are you sure you want to give me this?"

"Of course!" He replied "You got a dinosaur and a Stone just like us, so things will be a lot easier if you have one!" I turned it in my hand. It looked almost exactly like the ones they had, only mine was much brighter in colour.

"Let me explain how it works!" Max said. And with a little help from Rex and Zoe he started telling me everything about how to use the DinoHolder: How to use it with the cards, how to call out and recall my dinosaur, where to put the Stone, how the dinosaur locator worked, where to store my Move Cards and so on.

"All right, I think I get it…" I said once they were done, trying to memorize all they had told me, and then I turned towards them "Anyway, thanks a lot!" I said "And thanks again for helping me out, you really saved me and Aurora!"

"Don't mention it! You saved Chomp last time, so it's obvious we would come to help you! And besides, you're one of us now, remember?" Max said.

"I do" I replied and picked up the badge I had received during our last encounter from my other pocket "I am part of the D-Team now…" I said and smiled, but suddenly an unpleasant feeling came over me.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Zoe said, indicating my worry must have shown in my face. I hesitated for a moment.

"I just can't get what that masked guy said out of my head…" I replied "He said he was one of the Masked _Knights_, so could that mean there are others like him…?" They all stood quite for a while.

"Now that you say it…" Max said slowly "It actually makes a lot of sense…"

"Yeah…" Zoe said. Rex suddenly got a thoughtful look on his face.

"Then that might mean there are other Stones exactly like ours…" He said "And that might mean that these Masked Knights, whoever or whatever they are, has something to do with them, so perhaps we might find out more about that if we find out more about them."

"Well, it sounded like they really want me for some reason…" I said slowly "So maybe I'll be able to learn more as I go along…"

"Yeah!" Zoe said "Maybe we will be able to find out more about the mystery with the Stones if we just learn some more about those Masked Knights! So do you think you could let us know if you find something else?" She asked me.

"Well…I guess…" I said "But how do I let you know?"

"That's easy!" Max said "We can just contact you via your DinoHolder! So we can just call you occasionally and see if something shows up!"

"I didn't know you could use them like that" I said "Great! That will make things much easier!"

"Yeah" Rex suddenly said "But I think we should do like you said and get away from here before anyone finds out there has been a battle between dinosaurs here!" Max and Zoe both nodded.

"Well then…Till next time, Jim!" Max said, and in the next moment they had all vanished again. I turned around towards Aurora.

"We should probably get going to…" I said.

* * *

><p>As we walked back through the forest I didn't say very much: My head was still buzzing with questions after all that had happened, and I just couldn't seem to get it all together. Aurora didn't say much to me, although she looked up at me a couple of times, so I supposed she was thinking that she didn't wanted to bother me.<p>

By the time we had come out of the forest it was almost sundown, and as we finally reached my house the sun had almost set. When I entered the hall I almost instantly saw mum com walking out of the kitchen towards me.

"Jim?" She said "Where have you been?"

"I just…Thought I'd…Take a walk in the forest with Aurora…" I said, trying very hard not to sound nervous.

"Oh, then I understand." Mum said, smiling at me "Then it all makes sense. Either way, I'm almost finished with dinner; we're having grilled chicken today!"

"Great!" I said, but suddenly a thought crossed my mind. A very unpleasant thought…

"Is there something wrong, dear?" Mum asked in a worried tone "You don't look so good…"

"I'm fine!" I quickly said, trying to smile "Um, would it be okay if I ate in my room?"

"Well, why not." Mum said with a little smile "I'll tell you when it's done…"

* * *

><p>I walked into my room with the plate in my hand, putting it down on my desk. Then I went to get Aurora's bowl and a bag of dog food, and poured some up for her before settling down in the chair. Aurora immediately began to eat her food, so I assumed she must have been hungry after all that had happened. I picked up the fork to take a bite, but then I just sighted and put it back down. I couldn't eat anything right now: The thought from before was still bothering me…<p>

I rose up from the chair and walked over to Aurora and kneeled down in front of her. She stopped eating and looked up on me.

"_Jim?_" She said, tilting her head a little "_What is it?_"

"Well…It's just…" I started, not quite sure how to say it "I just wanted to say that…I…I'm sorry, Aurora…"

"_Sorry?_" She said in surprise "_For what?_" I hesitated for a moment. Then I took a deep breath.

"Back there…When you got pinned to the ground by that Albertosaurus…" I said at last "I just can't help but feeling…That I should have done something…But I just stood there all frightened…Had it not been for Max and the others there's no telling what might have happened to you…" I said as I felt tears slowly welling up in my eyes "I'm really sorry…" I said as the tears began running down my face. Suddenly I felt Auroras nose rubbing on my cheek, almost as if she was trying to wipe the tears away.

"_It's all right, Jim…_" She said softly "_Everything turned out fine, so don't blame yourself for what might have happened…_" I smiled at her and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

"I know, but still…" I said "Ever since we met you've done all you can to help me out when I've been in trouble, so I should at least try doing the same to you…That's what's friends are for, right?"

"_Yes, and no matter what you think, you're a wonderful friend Jim…_" Aurora said, nudging my cheek gently again. I smiled at her and was about to pat her when I noticed something outside the window…

I quickly rose to my feet and went over to open the window: The Northern Lights were back, flowing like rainbow threads across the sky, swaying gently back and forth. Just seeing it made me feel happier and I quickly turned around and picked up Aurora in my arms and placed her on the desk so that she could look at it as well. She seemed a little surprised at first, but the moment she saw what was going on outside her eyes instantly lit up.

"_They're back!_" She said excitedly "_It's beautiful…_"

"Yeah, they are…" I said. For a moment we just stood at the open window, watching the Northern Lights. As I watched the colourful arches flowing across the darkened sky, it was as if all my worries were swept away, as if I was suddenly filled with strength and determination. I finally took my eyes off the sky and looked at Aurora sitting on the desk next to were I stood, still transfixed by the Northern Light.

"Aurora…" I said. She looked away from the sky and looked up ay me.

"_Yes?_" She said. I drew a deep breath.

"I promise…" I said "That from now on I'll always protect you the best I can. I swear not to hesitate should something like that happen again; I swear I'll do anything to help you. Even if it costs me my life…" She gave me a worried look, but then she leaned her head against my cheek again.

"_I can tell you mean it…And the fact that you do makes me so happy to have you as my friend, Jim…_" She said softly.

"Yeah, the next time we run into anything like that I'll fight as well…" I said as I picked her up in my arms and hugged her. She just closed her eyes and rubbed her head on my cheek. _Of course…_ I thought to myself _The best thing would obviously be if there was no next time…_ But something just told me that wish was doomed never to be fulfilled…

* * *

><p>A shadow was moving trough the deep, dark forest. It soon found itself standing in front of a lake by the foot of the mountain. Despite the darkness it could clearly see the deep gashes on a nearby tree, and as it looked around it could clearly see that several other trees had been cut right in half. It the turned towards the mountain and almost immediately noticed that a large amount of rocks and earth had been blasted away from the mountainside.<p>

"Oh well…" It said "I guess Blaze wasn't such a burning hot success after all…Not that it matters. When I'm done with that little deserter Gust, he'll beg me on his bare knees to let him become one of us again…"


	11. Double Dino trouble

Chapter 11:

I slowly opened my eyes, looking faintly at the alarm clock on my bedside table. It was Monday again, meaning it was time to get back to school. _Thirteen minutes to seven…_I thought _Even if I wait till seven, I'll be able to take a quick walk with Aurora and still make it to class in time…_ Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a tickling feeling on my left cheek. I opened my eyes up wide and realized it was Aurora licking my cheek. She had started doing that to wake me up during this weekend, and although I had been quite surprised at first, I had already started to get used to it. Matter of fact, just yesterday I had even pretended I was still asleep as she did it, just lying there and letting her lick me. After a while though, I had blown my cover when I started laughing since her tongue was tickling me so badly. Now I quickly sat up in the bed as she stopped licking my cheek. She looked into my eyes.

"_Did you sleep well, Jim?_" She asked softly.

"Yeah" I said as I reached out my hand and patted her head while I wiped my cheek with my other hand, since it was still wet from her licking it "And what about you, Aurora?"

"_Yes, me to…_" She replied, but then she was quite for a short while... "_Can we take a walk, please?_" She suddenly said.

"So that's why you woke me up, huh?" I said with a little grin, picking her up in my arms and tickling her belly. She immediately started laughing and wriggling in my arms "You got it, let's go!"

* * *

><p>As we walked outside I immediately noticed it had gotten way colder than before: Fall had arrived without a doubt. Every tree along the street was bare, and the ground was covered with their fallen leaves. I even noticed there was frost on the ground here and there, and the wind felt chillier than ever before, so I was glad I had remembered to take my warm jacket and scarf on before leaving.<p>

"_Jim…_" Aurora suddenly said as we walked down the street "_I'm freezing…_" I looked down on her and realized she was actually shivering slightly. Suddenly I got an idea. I took off my scarf and tied it around my waist, and then I opened up the zipper of my jacket before bending down and picking up Aurora, holding her against my chest as I closed my jacket, but leaving a bit of the zipper open, so that Aurora could stick her head out of it as she now sat inside my jacket.

"How's this?" I asked her as she poked her head out of my jacket.

"_Great!_" She said happily "_It's really warm and cosy…_" I laughed a little as she snuggled up against me, and we kept walking down the street. Since it was still pretty early we didn't meet any others during the walk, and I was actually happy about that: As practical as my idea to keep Aurora warm was, I couldn't help but feeling a little silly as I walked down the street…

* * *

><p>As we returned home mum had woken up and I noticed she had prepared breakfast for us, so we both sat down in the kitchen to eat, and once we were done it was time for me to head of to school.<p>

"Have a good day, darling!" Mum said as she walked out through the door while I was taking on my jacket "See you in the afternoon!" As she exited the house Aurora walked up to me. I quickly bent down and stroke her the same way I always did before leaving.

"_Promise you'll hurry back, Jim…_" She said as she nudged me with her nose.

"Promise." I said, and was just about to leave, when, suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. I quickly ran back up to my room and picked up the DinoHolder I had received from Max last week, and ran back to Aurora down in the hall.

"I think I'll actually take you with me from now on!" I said as I pushed the button on the DinoHolder and as Aurora gave me a surprised look, she turned back into a card. I quickly stuffed the DinoHolder and her card into my jacket, and then I quickly ran of. Seeing how Blaze had spoken about the Masked Knights looking for me, and judging from how he had actually searched me out, I found it safe to assume they would try getting me again. And if they did I needed some way to fight back, not to mention there was always the possibility they might attack me while there were other people around, meaning I might not be the only one in need of protection next time...

* * *

><p>As soon as I arrived at school, I snuck the card and the DinoHolder into my bag, and made sure to always have it with me wherever I went. As I walked out of the lunch room a few hours later to head back to class, I met John, and to my surprise I noticed he was dressed to go outside.<p>

"What's with the confusion, Jim?" He asked "You do remember we would make a study tour to the museum after lunch today, right?"

"Oh my! I had totally forgotten!" I said and rushed to get my jacket, placing Aurora's card and the DinoHolder in my inner pocket, and then I quickly ran outside where the rest of the class stood shivering in the cold, waiting for me.

* * *

><p>The Museum of Natural History that we were to visit was located in a town a few kilometres away, so we had to go by bus to get there. As soon as we arrived we went to leave our bags for safe keeping as we would leave for home after the tour, then we returned to the entrance to meet up with John and another man, who I realized had to be our guide for the visit. And so we started walking trough the museum as the guide told us about the various objects put out on display. But as we entered the exhibition about the prehistory and he started talking about how life first appeared on Earth, a loud beeping suddenly interrupted him.<p>

"Hey, what is that?" John asked as he looked around on us. In the next second I realized it was coming from my pocket!

"I-I'm really sorry!" I said hurriedly as everyone looked at me and the guide gave me a grim look "I'll just…Wait a second!" I said, running a little bit away and hauled out the now beeping DinoHolder from my jacket. I could see that what looked like a map had appeared on the screen, and a dot was blinking on it. I realized what it must mean: A new dinosaur must have appeared somewhere! As I gazed upon the screen I suddenly got yet another shock: I recognized the area displayed on the map! It was the north of Sweden! The very area I was in now! Could that mean there was a real live dinosaur somewhere around here…?

"Jim! Jim, what are you doing?" John suddenly called at me from a distance. I quickly realized there was nothing I could do about it now, at least not without risking to attract attention to me. I pulled out the scarf from my pocket and wrapped it around the DinoHolder, thus muffling the sound.

"What was that all about?" John asked me as I rejoined the group.

"Oh, it was just my cell phone, guess I forgot to turn it off…" I said, trying not to sound nervous. He gave me a suspicious look.

"But you've never had a cell phone before, have you?" He said with a raised eyebrow. Luckily, in that very moment the guide cleared his throat, thus ending our conversation and so we kept walking. We soon stopped in front of a large replica of a Tyrannosaurus skeleton put out on display next to a life-size model of another dinosaur. The guide turned towards us and started telling about the time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. As interesting as I thought it was to hear, I just couldn't help but thinking about what I had just seen on the screen of the DinoHolder. Were there really a dinosaur nearby…?

"…The Tyrannosaurus was one of the largest carnivorous animals ever to walk this Earth" The guide said, snapping me out of my thoughts "It preyed on large herbivores like the Triceratops..." He continued and pointed towards the model put out on display next to the skeleton. Every one of my classmates automatically looked from the skeleton to the model next to it, and then turned to listen to the guide again. I on the other hand kept looking at the model Triceratops. Its body was a bright grey with dots of darker grey on its back. Its underside was dark yellow, and its frill was decorated with grey and orange stripes. After seeing Chomp in his full form twice already I had quite a good idea what a Triceratops looked like, and for some reason I couldn't help but thinking there was something wrong about this model: Not only did its size not quite seem to match Chomp's, but I could also have sworn that the horn at the end of its snout was way shorter than I remember seeing it…

As the guide kept going on about the Tyrannosaurus my eyes suddenly widened: For a moment I could have sworn that I had seen it blinking...But that would be impossible…It was just a model, right?

"Jim, are you listening?" John suddenly said, and I looked up and realized the whole class was looking at me again, some were even giggling. And the guide was looking grimly at me again.

"Of course!" I said nervously "I guess I just…" But before I could finish I was interrupted by a loud noise. The rest of the group and John whirled around and as I looked in the direction I had heard the sound I realized what was happening: The model dinosaur right beside the T-Rex skeleton was moving! It let out a loud roar as it lowered its head, and in the next second it rammed right into the Tyrannosaurus skeleton, smashing it to pieces. The dinosaur turned suddenly towards us, causing many of my classmates to start screaming in terror and they quickly turned around and started running towards the exit.

"No way!" The guide cried as the dinosaur turned around and charged at a display case full of ammonites, crushing it to pieces "That model is alive!" I just stood there staring at it. The other visitors at the museum seemed to have realized just what was going on as well, and they were all heading for the exit, and I could hear people scream as they ran by. It was like a pandemonium...

"Come on, Jim!" John suddenly shouted and grabbed my arm "We have to get out of here!" As he began pulling me towards the exit, the dinosaur suddenly turned around and rushed at a large pillar not far away from us, causing large chunks of stone to fall down on us at it crashed to the ground. One of the rocks hit John's shoulder, and I could feel him release his grip of my arm, and in the next second a cloud of dust spread as the stones kept hitting the floor, and I could no longer see John no matter were I looked.

"Jeez" A voice suddenly said "What's with those guys? They're acting like they've never seen an Arrhinoceratops before…" I whirled around and despite the cloud of dust I could have sworn I saw the outlines of a person standing right next the now demolished skeleton…

"Who are you?" I called trough the dust "Are you the one controlling that dinosaur?"

"Right on the money!" The voice replied. Judging from the voice I was almost certain it was a girl speaking, and from what I could see trough the dust she was almost exactly as tall as me.

"It looks like I finally found you, Gust!" She said. I froze. She just called me Gust! Could that mean…? Suddenly the cloud of dust began to clear, and I almost immediately noticed her standing in front of me, dressed in a black coat with a hood and black gloves, just like the ones Blaze had worn. And I also noticed that whoever it was even wore a mask just like the one he had worn, only difference this one was golden rather than red.

"Hey!" I said "Are you…?"

"One of the Masked Knights?" The girl interrupted "Yes, my name is Thunder. Oh, and I see you've met my partner Arrhinoceratops already…" She said, nodding at the dinosaur now standing right beside her.

"What do you mean wrecking this place? Just what do you want?" I shouted at her.

"Isn't that obvious?" She replied coldly "I'm here to do what Blaze couldn't: Take you back to join the Masked Knights! And it looks like my plan to lure you in worked wonderfully!"

"Will you ever give it up?" I asked irritably "I already told you I won't join up with the likes of you, and that's final!" She just looked at me.

"I couldn't care less what you want" She replied "You will come back with me whether you want to or not!"

"I refuse!" I shouted as loudly as I could.

"Let's just see about that…" She said mockingly, and suddenly the Arrhinoceratops started to move towards me. I didn't hesitate for a second: I quickly put my hand into my jacket and pulled out my DinoHolder and Aurora's card. I then pulled of the scarf I had tied around it and quickly slashed the card through it.

"Come out, Aurora!" I called. There was a blaze of light, and in the next second she stood in front of me in her full form. I could see her looking from the Arrhinoceratops to the masked girl Thunder, and something just told me she had a very good idea of what was going on...

"_Jim…_" She said as she kept looking at them "_Does this mean…?_"

"Yeah" I said "Looks like this girl's one of those Masked Knights just like that guy Blaze we encountered before, and from the looks of things she's looking for a fight…"

"Looks like Blaze were right…" The masked girl said as she looked at Aurora "You _are _troublesome!"

"If refusing to go with you guys without a fight means being troublesome, I don't mind being troublesome!" I snapped back at her.

"I never said it mattered." She said "If you thought Blaze was though, just wait till you get to fight me!" And suddenly she pulled out something from her coat and held it up in front of me. I recognized it: It looked just like the Lightning-Stone Max had showed me! Before I had a chance to do anything, she also pulled out a card and swiped it over the Stone.

"Wall Smash!" She called, and in the next second the Arrhinoceratops began glowing in a whitish light, and in the next second it rushed forward at full speed, smashing right into Aurora. The impact immediately sent her crashing into the nearby wall, and before she had a chance to stand back up the Arrhinoceratops charged at her again, smashing up a large hole in the wall as it send her crashing through it.

"Aurora!" I cried through the dust.

"Don't waste your breath, she's through." The masked girl said "Just come along with me now!"

"Forget it!" I shouted as tears started to well up in my eyes. Could Aurora really be…? Suddenly there was a loud roar and in the next second Aurora appeared trough the hole in the wall! She looked badly beaten, but she was definitely still in one piece.

"Aurora! I knew you'd be okay!" I cried happily.

"Well, she won't be for long!" The masked girl said "Not once I'm trough with her!"

"Oh, yeah? Well don't think I'll give up without a fight!" I snapped back, and I quickly pressed a button on the DinoHolder, extracting the Razor Wind-card, and was just about to swipe it when I felt a stinging pain in my hand, and the card fell out of it and landed in front of me on the floor. In the next second I realized the masked girl had pulled out what looked very much like a whip from her coat, and lashed my hand with it to make me drop the card.

"I already know all your tricks from your fight with Blaze!" She called as I rubbed my now stinging hand "I won't let you use that move!" And in the next second she lashed the card in front of me with her whip, causing it to fly up in the air and it landed on top of display case.

"No, my card!" I cried as I rushed over to the case to get it back.

"Static Surge!" She suddenly called, swiping yet another card on her Stone. The Arrhinoceratops suddenly glowed in a yellow light and in the next second its horns began sparkling with electricity. Just as I reached for the card on top of the case, it shot a beam of lightning towards Aurora, hitting her square on. She roared as the lightning hit her, and then she fell shivering to the ground. The DinoHolder I held in my hand suddenly started beeping and the screen began blinking red, and I remembered Max and the others telling me that meant Aurora would soon run out of power!

"No!" I cried as I quickly whirled around and began running towards Aurora.

"Looks like that Allosaurus isn't quite finished yet" The masked girl said coldly "Guess I'll have to give it some more hurt…" She was just about to swipe the card I had seen her use before when I rushed up in between Aurora and the Arrhinoceratops, positioning myself right in its path.

"Cut it out! Leave her alone!" I shouted.

"Get out of the way!" She growled "I have to get rid of that dinosaur!"

"Never! If you want to finish her off, you're going to have to finish me first!" I cried.

"_Jim…_" Aurora suddenly said weakly behind me "_You have to run…You'll never be able to defeat her…At least save yourself…_"

"No way!" I said as I turned towards her "I won't run! After what happened back then I promised that if you ever got in trouble again I'd protect you no matter what! And I won't go back on my word!"

"_Jim…_" Aurora said, completely in awe.

"Even if I were to get away in one piece, I can't imagine life without you!" I cried "You're my friend, and if they take you, I'm going down with you!"

"How touching…" The masked girl said mockingly "But I'm afraid I can't have that. That dinosaur is one thing, but if something were to happen to you, Gust, I'd be in big trouble, so I can't let you do it!" And suddenly she swung her whip again, and this time it wrapped around my left hand. In the next second she pulled hard on the whip, causing me to fall hard onto the stone floor.

"Now go!" The masked girl called to the Arrhinoceratops "Take that Allosaurus down!"

"Aurora! No!" I cried as I struggled to stand back up as the Arrhinoceratops once again charged at her, but suddenly something smashed trough the wall next to it and the Arrhinoceratops quickly jumped out of the way as a large red dinosaur suddenly burst trough the wall and let out a deafening roar. I immediately recognized it: It was a Tyrannosaurus!

And in the next second I heard a familiar voice trough the dust…

"Where are you, you little brat? This time that Allosaurus of yours is ours!" I could clearly hear that it was a woman speaking, and as the dust began to clear I could see three familiar-looking figures standing in the hole that the T-Rex had smashed up in the wall…


	12. Foe against foe

Chapter 12:

"What's with the surprise?" Ursula said as she stepped up in front of me and Aurora, closely followed by Ed and Zander, with Terry standing behind her "I told you we'd be back didn't I? Or did you think we were just joking, hm?" I just stared. I couldn't believe it. First the Masked Knights, and now them? Things had just turned from bad to worse…Much, much worse...

"How…?" I said, completely in awe "How did you get here? How did you find me?"

"Impressive, yes?" Zander said "Finding you was actually a walk in the park, thanks to our Alpha Scanners picking up the signal from your dinosaur!" And he held up the same gadget I had seen them use to make their dinosaurs appear during our last encounter.

"And from the looks of things it seems like that Allosaurus of yours is already down for the count" Ursula said, and I felt a wave of terror running through me as she looked at Aurora, who still hadn't recovered from the Arrhinoceratop's attack earlier "And since I can't see any sign of those other three brats, it looks like catching it will be even easier than I thought!" She said with an evil grin. _Great, so that means they can detect dinosaurs as well…Now I'll have to start worrying about them popping up when i least expect it as well..._ I thought, gritting my teeth _But wait a minute…If they came here by following a signal from a dinosaur, then that must mean that signal must have been from…_

"But I don't remember you making Terry use any moves." Ed suddenly said "So how can that Allosaurus be out already?" Ursula and Zander looked at him.

"Good question…" Zander said "And none of us used Tank or Spiny either, so…"

"Hey, who invited you?" The masked girl Thunder said as she walked up in front of them, sounding clearly irritated. Ed, Zander and Ursula all turned towards her, obviously surprised over seeing there was another person in the room.

"Um, who are you?" Zander said, correcting his glasses "And why are you wearing that mask?" She didn't answer.

"Oh, just forget about it!" Ursula said impatiently "This isn't any place for games, kid!" She said, turning towards her "Just get out of here whoever you are, you're in the way!"

"Funny…" Thunder said in a taunting kind of way "I was about to say the exact same thing to you dorks..."

"Pardon me?" Ursula said, with a hint of dislike in her voice "You need to mind your attitude, young lady!"

"Hmph. Take a hike." Thunder said coldly, turning her back on Ursula and once again turned to me.

"Just ignore those clowns, Gust" She said "We still have unfinished business to take care of…"

"Hey! Don't you dare turning your back on us!" Ursula said angrily "Do you have any idea who we are?"

"Of course I know who you are." Thunder said, obviously irritated over being interrupted "You're those losers calling themselves the Alphie Gang, right? I heard all about you from Blaze, so…"

"Hey!" Ursula said angrily "It's the _Alpha_ Gang, you little brat! Say it right!"

"Yeah, and who are you calling losers?" Zander said, suddenly sounding annoyed as well.

"I don't care what you call yourselves, you hopeless loser rats." Thunder replied irritably again, this time turning towards them "In case you can't tell, I was kind of in the middle of something here, so do us all a favour an run back to the sewer you came from, will you?"

"The nerve of that!" Ursula said, sounding angrier than ever "I think you need to be thought a lesson in manners, young lady! Go get her, Terry!" Terry quickly began moving towards her, baring his teeth and roaring at her. When he was just a few inches away from her, however, something suddenly slammed into him, sending him crashing to the floor. The Arrhinoceratops had suddenly rushed out from the hole Terry had smashed up in the wall. From the looks of things it must have rushed into it as soon as he appeared, just waiting there for the right moment to strike. The Arrhinoceratops walked up beside Thunder, snorting mockingly at Terry as he struggled to stand up. Ed, Zander and Ursula all stared at it in disbelief.

"Where did that come from?" Ursula said as she stared at it "And what is that dinosaur anyway?"

"I think it's called an Arrhinoceratops..." Zander said "And from the looks of things it seems to be working for that rude kid with the mask…"

"Arrhino-what now?" Ursula said.

"And if it took down Terry that easily, it must be a pretty powerful dinosaur…" Ed said, sounding worried "Maybe we should just forget about this and get out of here while we can…"

"Have you lost what little brain you still have?" Ursula snapped "We're not going anywhere! We'll just catch it and that Allosaurus! That little brat got lucky, that's all!"

"Sounds like someone doesn't know when they're beat." Thunder said mockingly "But go ahead! If you want to be whopped again, I'm more than happy to be of service!"

"All right, you asked for it either way! Take down that Arrhino-whatever, Terry!" Ursula called.

Terry rushed at the Arrhinoceratops, but just when he was about to sink his teeth into its back it quickly jumped out of the way, causing Terry to bite into a large stone pillar instead. Then it quickly rushed at him again, ramming into the centre of his body and sending him crashing to the floor yet again.

"Told you…" Thunder said with a taunting chuckle. Ursula growled angrily.

"Hey, Ursula" Ed said "Don't you think it would work better if you tried using a Move Card?"

"Don't you think I already know that?" She said irritably "I was just about to! Neck Crusher!" She called, swiping a card through her Alpha Scanner. Terry suddenly rose to his feet, and in the next second he began glowing red, and then he once again rushed at the Arrhinoceratops, this time lowering his head. But when he was just inches away from it, the Arrhinoceratops suddenly spun around, hitting him over his legs with its tail, causing him to fall over and crash to the floor. The Arrhinoceratops then rammed into his side with its horns, sending him skidding across the floor. Just like before it snorted mockingly at Terry, and then it promptly turned its back on him and walked back up to Thunder.

"Have you come to your senses yet?" Thunder said mockingly "You and I play in different leagues! Just give up and accept defeat already!" Ursula growled again, and then she turned to Ed and Zander.

"Don't just stand there! Call out Spiny and Tank and let's teach that little brat and her bratty dinosaur some manners!" She said impatiently. They both seemed very uncertain.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ed asked.

"If that dinosaur could do that to Terry" Zander said, nodding towards Terry who was still struggling to stand up "There's no telling what it's going to do to Spiny and Tank…"

"And there's no telling what I'm going to do to you two if you don't do what I'm saying!" Ursula growled threateningly at them. Hearing this they both seemed to give up on reasoning with her.

"Alpha Slash!" They both cried, slashing their cards through their Alpha Scanners.

"Gush out, Spinosaurus!" Zander cried.

"Shake them up, Saichania!" Ed cried.

There were two flashes of blue and purple light, and in the next second a Spinosaurus and a Saichania appeared in front of them in the room. They both immediately spotted the Arrhinoceratops, and they both positioned themselves, waiting for orders.

"Now this is more like it!" Ursula said confidently "Let's go get that dinosaur once and for all, Terry!" Somehow I could see that the thought of fighting an enemy who had already knocked him down three times didn't exactly seem to appeal to Terry, but as he noticed Spiny and Tank were there as well, he seemed to decide to do what Ursula said. Suddenly Tank and Spiny both rushed at the Arrhinoceratops, but once again it just jumped out of the way for them.

"It's no use!" Thunder said "It doesn't matter how many dinosaurs you use, fools are still fools, and there's just no way on Earth a pack of fools like you could beat me!"

"Oh yeah?" Ursula growled "Then let's see how you like this! Volcano Burst!" She called, swiping another card. Terry suddenly began glowing red agian, and to my horror I saw how a large flame began to amass in his mouth, and suddenly he opened his jaws up wide and fired an intense fiery breath towards the Arrhinoceratops. Thunder quickly pulled out the Stone I had seen earlier from her coat.

"Static Surge!" She called, swiping the card over the Stone. Just like it had done to Aurora, the Arrhinoceratops fired a beam of lightning towards Terry. The two attacks collided in midair, and the ensuing explosion caused a bunch of nearby display cases to shatter to pieces and once again a large cloud of dust filled up the room. I could hear coughing though the dust, but I had no idea what had happened between Terry and the Arrhinoceratops, so I just backed up closer to Aurora, almost hoping that they had finished each other off…

In the next second there was a deafening roar, and as the dust began to clear I could see that Terry and the Arrhinoceratops were both still standing. From the looks of things their attacks had just cancelled each other out, with neither side taking any damage. Suddenly I noticed something: I could see Spiny standing behind Terry, but Tank was nowhere to be seen. What could that mean...?

In the next second the ground behind the Arrhinoceratops began to crack, and suddenly Tank's head shot out from the hole in the ground. I understood: Tank must have used the battle and the cloud of dust to sneak underground unnoticed, and as she crawled back up on the floor, she suddenly grabbed the Arrhinoceratops tail in her mouth.

"Way to go Tank!" Ursula said "Now hurry up and use the Move Card!"

"Okay! Dino Swing!" Ed called, swiping a card trough his Alpha Scanner. Tank suddenly began glowing white, and then it started swinging the Arrhinoceratops's around in circles, and then she suddenly released her grip, sending the Arrhinoceratops crashing trough the nearby wall.

"Shock Wave!" Zander called, swiping the card. Spiny suddenly began glowing in blue light, and in the next second a large mass of water began floating around him, and then the water shot out towards the hole in the wall the Arrhinoceratops smashed up when it fell into it. The water splattered the floor all around the hole, and I could hear the Arrhinoceratops let out a loud roar.

"Well, who's a fool now?" Ursula said triumphantly as she stepped up in front of Thunder along with Ed and Zander, all smiling triumphantly as well.

"Do you really need to ask?" Thunder said. There was something cold an extremely threatening in her voice, and just hearing it made me think something bad was about to come…

"You still think you can beat us?" Ursula asked with a grin.

"Do I _Think _I can still beat you?" Thunder replied, once again with the same cold and threatening voice "I guess you don't know what happens when I get angry…" It seemed like the Alpha Gang had noticed her sudden change in attitude, and I noticed their smiles of triumph slowly started to fade.

"O-okay, so what's that?" Zander said uncertainly.

"It doesn't end well for anyone…" She said coldly "Not for you…And not for you dinosaurs!" Suddenly there was a loud roar from the hole the Arrhinoceratops had smashed up when it got knocked through the wall, and in the next second it rushed out from the hole, once again positioning itself next to Thunder.

"No way!" Ursula cried in disbelief "That dinosaur's still standing?"

"That's right…" Thunder said "And since you managed to make me angry, I'll let you know the real difference between our skill levels!" She pulled out another card from her cloak.

"This is what you get for daring to cross my path! Static Sphere!" She called, swiping the card. The Arrhinoceratops suddenly began glowing in as strong yellow light, and suddenly its horns and frill began sparkling with electricity. The electricity seemed to grow more and more intense, and then it suddenly began forming into a ball of lightning. The Arrhinoceratops let out a loud roar, and in the same moment the lightning-ball shot out towards the three Alpha dinosaurs. They all roared out loud as the ball hit them, and the intense light from it made me close my eyes as tightly as I could. As the light died down I saw all three of the dinosaurs shivering from the shock. Then they all fell down on the floor and turned back into cards in a flash of light. _Unbelievable_ I thought _She just wiped out all of them with just one move…_

From the looks of things the Alpha Gang were just as shocked as me, as they all hurried up to the place where their dinosaurs had been standing to pick up their cards.

"So...Now who's a fool, hm?" Thunder said mockingly as she turned towards them. Ursula seemed to be beside herself with rage, but as the Arrhinoceratops suddenly started walking towards her, she quickly turned around and started running towards the hole in the wall.

"You better believe I'll remember this!" She cried back at Thunder "We'll get you for this! One way or another!"

"Ursula, wait!" Zander cried as he hurried after her, closely followed by Ed.

"Don't leave us behind!" Ed cried. And soon they had all vanished out of the hole. I couldn't help but drawing a sight of relief. _Well…That's one thing less to worry about… _I thought.

"That sure was a waste of time!" Thunder suddenly said, turning towards me yet again. I loked up, clenching my fists. It looked like I wasn't quite in the clear just yet...

"Now that that's taken care of..." She said in a soft, foreboding kind of voice "What say you we pick up where we left of, Gust…"


	13. Riddles and answers

Chapter 13:

"I'll just say it once, and with very little patience, Gust…" Thunder said as she began walking towards me, closely followed by the Arrhinoceratops "Will you come with me and return to the Masked Knights?" I bit my lip. What should I do…?

"I think you know what's going to happen if you refuse…" She said coldly, her eyes suddenly falling onto Aurora behind me "Your friend meets an early end…" I didn't know what to say. The situation was more or less disastrous: Aurora had been knocked almost all the way to defeat. The Arrhinoceratops had just taken the attacks of both Tank and Spiny, yet it seemed unfazed. It also had defeated both of them and Terry with just one move. And to make it all worse the Razor Wind-card, my only means of fighting back, was still on top of the display case Thunder had knocked it up onto, and the only way to reach it was past Thunder and the Arrhinoceratops, which not only seemed impossible, but should I try to reclaim it, it would mean Aurora would be wide open, and then…

"This is your last chance." Thunder said impatiently "With me or against me? Chose!"

"_Jim…_" Aurora suddenly said "_You have to run…You have to get away…_"

"No way!" I said, whirling around towards her "I already told you…"

"_I know how you feel…_" She said weakly "_But you have to save yourself…_"

"But…" I started.

"_You said that protect each other is what friends do, right?_" She said "_You've already tried your all to protect me…Now will you let me do that for you?_" I looked at her in shock, and suddenly I could see how a tear slowly welled up in her eye…

"Aurora…" I said, trying not to start crying as well.

"I've had it with you two acting all sentimental!" Thunder suddenly said angrily "But if that Allosaurus truly wishes to go down to save you, I'll fulfil her wish right away!" Despite the situation I couldn't help but staring: She actually understood what Aurora just said? What could it mean…?

In the next second the Arrhinoceratops began walking towards us, pointing its horns straight towards Aurora…

I clenched my fists as hard as I could. Was it really nothing I could do…?

Suddenly I heard a beep coming from my right hand. I looked down and realized I still had my DinoHolder in my hand, and when I had squeezed it, I had accidently pressed the button I used earlier to extract the Razor Wind-card. The Holder now extracted another card, and as I pulled it out I immediately recognized it: It was the card the other masked boy, Blaze, had given me before he disappeared. The Turbo Tackle-Move Card. I hesitated. It was a card given to me by the enemy…Could I really use it without risk…? But then I realized I had nothing to lose. If this was the only chance I had left, I was willing to take it no matter what the cost.

"Aurora…" I said and turned towards her, looking deeply into her eyes "Can you do one last thing for me?" She looked at me in disbelief, but suddenly I could have sworn I saw a tiny bit of determination in her eyes…

"_I'll do anything for you, Jim…_" She said.

"I need you to stand back up and attack that Arrhinoceratops one last time." I said without breaking our eye contact. She gave me a look clearly indicating she couldn't believe what I just said.

"_But after all you've seen it do…Do you actually believe we can win?_" She said uncertainly.

"There's still a chance…" I said "And if it works, it could pay of big-time."

"_But what if it doesn't…_" She said. I gave her a serious look.

"It will work…I know it will…" I said "Because…I believe in you!" She looked at me in amazement. Then she gave a loud groan, pushing herself back up on her feet. Her legs shook as she stood up, but it was clear that she was ready to give it one last try before the end…

"You've got to be kidding me!" Thunder said incredulously "You actually plan to fight? I don't know if you're extremely brave of extremely foolish, or simply a little bit of both, Gust!"

"It's neither." I replied as Aurora stepped up behind me "I simply refuse to give up on my best friend, that's all." And I turned towards Aurora again "You ready?" I said.

"_Yes._" She said "_Yes, Jim…_"

"Then let's do this! Go! Turbo Tackle!" I called swiping the card through the DinoHolder. Aurora suddenly began glowing in blue light, but in the next second the light vanished. I stared at Aurora, and I could see that Thunder did the same. Had the move failed? Was this really it…?

Suddenly Aurora shot forward so fast I could hardly even see her, and in the next second she slammed right into the Arrhinoceratops. The force of the impact sent the apparently overwhelmed dinosaur flying across the room, crashing into the wall on the other side and slumped down on the floor on the other end of the room. As I stared at it, there was a sudden flash of light and then it turned back into a card. Once again both I and Thunder stared as the card fell down on the floor.

"It worked…It actually did…" I said slowly as the defeated Arrhinoceratops's card landed onto the floor "We actually won…" Thunder suddenly whirled around, and began running towards the place were the card had fallen down. I walked up to Aurora now standing in front of me, and as I did she once again slumped to the ground, breathing heavily. I wrapped my arms around her neck, hugging her as hard as I could.

"_Jim..._" She murmured, and I could clearly hear that she felt just as happy as I did "_It worked…It really worked…We won…_"

"Yes." I beamed at her "We did it…Thank you so much, Aurora, you…"

"Hey!" Thunder said furiously, and I noticed she now stood just a few metres away from me and Aurora, holding the Arrhinoceratops's card in her hand "Just what is going on here? How can you possibly have that card?"

"If you really want to know, I got it from your friend Blaze!" I said as I rose to my feet, looking straight at her.

"That's just not possible!" She snapped back "Even if you managed to win against him, there's just no way you could have taken it from him!"

"I didn't need to: He gave it to me!" I replied angrily.

"He did _what_?" Thunder cried in disbelief "That's just preposterous! That's even more impossible than for you to take it from him!"

"It's true!" I shouted at her "He said that he had been ordered to give it to me!"

"He told you that?" Thunder cried, now sounding more shocked than ever "That fool! He wasn't supposed to give it to you until he had gotten you to the hideout, and…"

"Hideout?" I repeated "What hideout?" Thunder suddenly took a step backwards, breathing heavily.

"You tricked me…" She growled furiously "Now I've said too much…I have to get out of here…"

"Hold on!" I shouted "You still haven't told me! Just what are the Masked Knights? And how come you and that other guy Blaze had those Stones? And most importantly: Why are you trying to get me?" Thunder just growled again.

"Don't you worry, you little traitor…" She said furiously "You'll find out eventually…And you better believe it's going to be very painful for you…" And before I knew it, she had pulled out the whip I had seen her use before, lashing it towards the floor, and then…She vanished!

I couldn't help but staring at the floor where she had previously stood. _Just how did she do that?_ I thought _The exact same thing happened after the battle with Blaze…_

I walked up to the display case were the Razor Wind-card still laid, and reached out for it, putting it back in my DinoHolder, then I turned around to walk back to Aurora. As I walked back towards her, I suddenly noticed something on the floor were Thunder had previously stood. I slowly bent down and picked it up. I immediately noticed it was a card, and judging from the symbol on the backside it was a Wind-Attribute card. I turned it in my hand. On the front there was a picture showing a group of dinosaurs running circles around an Einiosaurus, so I assumed it was another Move Card…

"Whirlwind…?" I read "But how did this end up here…?" Then a thought crossed my mind: Thunder must have had it, but from the looks of things she must have dropped it when pulling out her whip to escape, but what could this…?

"Jim! Jim! Hang in there!" A voice suddenly called, making me jump in surprise. I whirled around and saw Max come running towards me, closely followed by Rex and Zoe. I couldn't possibly tell how happy I was to see a friendly face after all that just happened. Max stopped right in front of me, breathing heavily "I'm really sorry…" He gasped while looking around wildly as he pulled out his own DinoHolder, preparing to slash Chomp's card "Our DinoHolders suddenly began to malfunction, and it took hours to fix them…We came as fast as we could…What happened here?"

"Settle down, Max." I said, trying to make him calm down "The fight's already over." He stared at me as Rex and Zoe walked up to me as well.

"What do you mean?" He said incredulously "What exactly happened here?"

"Who did you fight?" Zoe asked "Was it that masked guy Blaze again?"

"No." I replied "It was a Masked Knight, but it wasn't him. This time it was some masked girl calling herself Thunder."

"So that means we were right!" Rex said "There really are more of those guys out there…" Max's eyes suddenly grew wide.

"Hold on, _Thunder_?" He said, looking totally stunned "You're not telling me…?"

"Yeah." I replied "She attacked me with her Arrhinoceratops, and she had a Stone exactly like yours; A Lightning Stone." Max looked at me as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"So you're telling us you actually beat her all by yourself?" Zoe asked.

"Well…Actually she beat Aurora almost all the way to collapse…" I said. They all looked at me in surprise.

"But…" Max said, apparently recovering from the shock "You're unharmed, and" His eyes fell on Aurora, still lying on the floor, eying us peacefully "Aurora's still in one piece! It just doesn't add up…"

"Well…" I said again "Truth is the Alpha Gang showed up and saved me…" They all stared at me.

"The Alpha Gang showed up and saved you?" Max repeated, totally in shock "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Yeah, that sounds weird even for them…" Zoe said doubtfully.

"Well, you see…" I said, and then I began telling them about everything that had happened…

* * *

><p>"Oh! Then it makes sense!" Zoe said understandingly once I had finished.<p>

"So they showed up just when Thunder was about to land the finishing blow, huh? Guess sometimes bad timing can be a good thing…" Max said with a little grin.

"Yeah…They had obviously planned to take Aurora, but ended up clashing with Thunder instead, and she chased them away…" I said.

"Wow, now that's what I call one rough fight…" Max started when, suddenly, his DinoHolder started beeping, and he turned his eyes to the screen.

"Reese?" He said in surprise "What are you…?"

"This is very important, Max" A voice interrupted him, and from the looks of things it seemed to come from Max's DinoHolder, and I could clearly hear that it was a woman's "Is the situation under control yet?" She asked.

"Yeah…As a matter of fact, the fight was already over when we arrived…" Max said.

"Really?" The woman said, sounding slightly surprised "In that case I need to ask you: Was that boy Jim involved again?"

"Yeah" Zoe said as she walked up to Max "It was he who did it all, so…"

"Is he there right now?" The woman interrupted "And if so: Can I talk to him?" They all turned towards me. I quickly understood, and walked up beside Max and Zoe, looking at the screen as well. I immediately noticed that a young woman with rather long, blonde hair and glasses, wearing a white lab coat had appeared on the screen.

"So you're Jim?" She said as her eyes fell on me.

"Yes…" I replied.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Reese, Zoe's older sister." She said.

"Yes, I've heard about you!" I said "You're the one who made the DinoHolders, right? Thanks a lot for making me one as well!" She looked at me.

"You're welcome." She replied shortly "But there are some things I need to ask you about, and it doesn't hurt if the rest of you listen as well..."

"What's that?" Zoe asked. Reese once again looked at all four of us, now all standing gathered in front of Max's DinoHolder.

"First of all…" She said "There is this thing with the Masked Knights you mentioned: I need you to tell me all you know about them." I hesitated for a while.

"Well…To be honest there isn't really that much I know…" I said slowly "All I really do know is that they seem to be some kind of mysterious group in possesion of dinosaurs, always acting in disguise, and for some reason they appear to think I used to be one of them, and therefore wants me to come back to them, so…"

"Second…" Reese interrupted me "Is it true that the one who told you about the Masked Knights, Blaze, had a Fire Stone exactly like the one Max and the other's has seen the Alpha Gang with?"

"Yes!" I replied immediately "And just a few moments ago I fought another one of them, a girl calling herself Thunder, and she had a Lightning Stone, just like Max's!" For a moment Reese looked like she was going to say something, but then she just nodded at me.

"I see…" She said slowly "Then maybe…"

"Maybe what, Reese?" Zoe asked her sister.

"Maybe this could mean that whoever those Masked Knights are, they just might have information about the Stones that we don't have yet…" She replied "So maybe if we find out more about them, we'll find more about the Stones and their origin…"

"Hey!" Max suddenly said, turning towards me "You said that Masked Knight-girl with the other Lightning Stone said something about taking you to their hideout, right?"

"Yes…Now that you mention it…" I said slowly "But we have no idea where it could be, so…"

"But don't you think it's possible it could be somewhere close to here?" Max said eagerly "I mean; Both that guy Blaze and now this girl Thunder came here to find you, so wouldn't it make sense if that hideout was located somewhere close?" None of us said anything for a while.

"I agree that it sounds possible…" Rex said after a while "But I think there's something we haven't taken into account…"

"Ok, so what's that?" Max asked.

"After we fought against that guy Blaze he just vanished without a trace. And from what Jim just said, the same thing happened after he fought Thunder. It was almost like they warped, so…"

"Yes, I think I see what you mean..." Zoe said.

"So that means their hideout might be in a completely different place. Maybe even in a different part of the world…" Rex said.

"Yeah, makes sense…" I said thoughtfully "Since it seems like they can just vanish at will, it could very well mean their hideout could be anywhere."

"Well, maybe you're right…" Max said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Lastly…" Reese suddenly said, making me jump in surprise; I had totally forgotten she was still there "From what I've heard up till now it seems like those Masked Knights has shown quite an interest in you. I want to know if you have any idea what their reason is for that."

"Well…" I said "From what I've been able to understand it sounds like they believe I used to be part of their group, but then I left and now they want me to come back. But I still have no idea why they think so…"

"Have you at any point been in some sort of accident?" Reese asked. I gave her a confused look.

"Why do you want to know that?" I asked in surprise.

"Because" She said "The reason you don't know why they're after you might be that you had an accident right after leaving them, and thus ended up losing your memory."

"Oh!" I said, and quickly closed my eyes and thought hard about what she had just asked me, but…

"No." I said after a couple of minutes "I have never been in any kind of accident like that."

"I see…" She said "Well, that's actually everything I wanted to ask you about…For now anyway." She then gave us all another look "But I still need all of you to keep an eye out for any possible clues about this…Especially you, Jim" She said, again turning towards me "I don't want you to feel like you're being used as bait, but…"

"Don't worry about it!" I said "I want to know more about this whole thing as well, and after everything all of you have done for me I'd be glad if I could help you in any way! Besides, I don't think I'd be able to keep them from coming for me, so…"

"No need to worry!" Max said "If you ever get in trouble, we'll come to help you out as soon as we can! Cause, like we already said; You're one of us now, remember?" And he pulled out his D-Team badge and held it up in front of me, and Zoe and Rex did the same thing. I smiled and pulled out mine from my jacket, holding it up in front of me.

"Yeah!" I said "That's right!" Reese nodded.

"Very good." She said "Now, till next time…" And in the next second the screen turned blank again. We all looked up at each other again.

"Maybe we should get back as well." Zoe said after a while "Since everything worked out fine, and Jim and Aurora are safe now it would seem our job here is done."

"Yeah, good idea." Max said, and they all picked out their DinoHolders once again.

"Well, until next time!" Max said.

"Take care!" Rex said.

"And remember to tell us if you find out anything else about the Masked Knights or the Stones!" Zoe said, and in the next second they vanished once again.

* * *

><p>I turned around and was just about to walk back to Aurora, when suddenly I heard a strange sound coming somewhere nearby. It sounded like a groan…<p>

"Uuuh…What happened…?" I whirled around and to my surprise I saw something moving underneath a pile of rocks. In the next second I realized that it was…

"John!" I shouted and ran over to him and quickly started to lift away the rocks. After about three minutes I had removed all the rocks on top of him, and he rose shakily to his feet. From the looks of things he had been buried under the falling stones when the Arrhinoceratops had rammed into that stone pillar, and got knocked unconscious.

"Are you all right?" I asked nervously as he carefully took a couple of steps to check he hadn't broken any bones.

"Yes…Yes…Thanks, Jim…" He said "It looks like…" Suddenly he stopped, and I could see a look of terror spread across his face. I quickly whirled around to see what he was looking at, and I realized he was looking straight at Aurora, still lying on the floor.

"There's another one!" He cried in terror "Jim! We have to get out of here!" And before I could react he had grabbed me by the arm again and began pulling me towards the exit. But he hadn't taken more than five steps before Aurora let out a loud roar and quickly rose to her feet again, and in the next second she had run up right in front of us. John released his grip of my arm and fell backwards on the floor in terror. Aurora growled threateningly as she slowly walked closer towards him.

"Aurora! No!" I cried "Don't hurt him!" She turned around and looked at me.

"_But Jim…_" She said "_Didn't he just try to take you away…?_"

"No!" I said again "He didn't mean any harm! He thought I was in danger and wanted to save me, that's why he pulled me away like that!" She immediately got a terrified look in her eyes.

"_Oh dear…_" She said "_And I thought that…_"

"It's all right" I said calmingly "No harm is done, so no need to worry!" She gave me relieved look. I smiled. John on the other hand looked completely awestruck as he rose back to his feet and stared at me and Aurora.

"Jim…" He said, totally in awe "Is that…? Did you just…? Jim, what on earth is going on?"

I hesitated for a moment, but then I realized there would be no use in denying: John had already seen the Arrhinoceratops that Thunder had unleashed to attack me, and to top it all of he had seen Aurora as well. There wasn't much I could do now…

"Well…" I said and walked up to him "You see…" And I told him everything. About collapsing and ending up in the Jurassic period and meeting Aurora. About meeting Max, Rex and Zoe and encountering the Alpha Gang. And about the mysterious Masked Knights chasing me. Once I finished telling he had a least said shocked look on his face.

"It all sounds…So unbelievable…" Was all he could say.

"Yeah, I see what you mean…" I said. Suddenly Aurora, who had been standing right behind me while telling, once again fell down on the floor from exhaustion.

"Maybe you should take a rest." I said quickly and pulled out my DinoHolder, turning her back into a card, slashing it again, and in the next second she sat on the floor in front of me in her small form, looking up at me. I quickly picked her up and let her rest her head against my shoulder.

"Aurora…You were amazing…" I murmured, stroking her softly over her head.

"_So were you…_" She said softly, leaning her head gently against my cheek. I smiled and then I turned to John, still standing there with disbelief written all over his face.

"Can you promise" I said nervously "Not to tell anyone about this?" John seemed to calm down a little, and this time he actually gave me a faint smile.

"Of course…" He said, and I let out a sight of relief "Of course I promise. I doubt anyone would believe in me, anyway…" I smiled gratefully at him.

"Well" He said "Maybe we should try to get home? I can accompany you…"

"Thanks." I said "I'll just get my bag…" And so we walked of towards the exit…

* * *

><p>A figure was moving inside a dark cave. It began searching for something in the pocket of its coat when, suddenly, there was a small<em> poof<em>, and in the next second another figure stood in front of him.

"Ah, Thunder." He said "Back so soon, eh?" The other figure growled at him.

"You got some nerve talking to me like that, Blaze!" She snapped "Had it not been for you we would have had Gust back by now!"

"That's funny…" He said sarcastically "Before you left I have a certain memory of you saying something like: _"I can handle that little traitor Gust no matter what he does or who helps him!"_"

"But I never thought…Hey!" Thunder said "That's not the point here! The point is you went against a direct order!"

"That's your opinion…" He said calmly.

"Why I ought to…" She growled.

"Stop that at once…" A deep voice suddenly said from the deepest part of the cave. The two of them whirled around and despite the darkness they could clearly see the outlines of a figure sitting on a large seat of stone in the corner of the cave…

"Chief!" They both said.

"Yes…" The voice said "I know all about what happened, and let me tell you it's a matter of little to no importance…"

"But Chief!" Thunder said as she took a step forward "Blaze broke a direct order! Is he just going to get away with that?"

"Are you referring to what he did with that card I entrusted him with?" The voice said.

"Yeah, wasn't he supposed to…" Thunder started.

"And may I ask you what happened to the card I entrusted you with…?" The voice interrupted.

"What are you talking about? I got it right here!" Thunder said, suddenly sounding irritated and immediately put her hand into her coat "But…What now? I know that..."

"Don't bother yourself…" The voice said "You never noticed it, but it would appear you lost it right before escaping after your defeat…"

"Well, so much for "Thunder the Perfect"..." Blaze said tauntingly.

"Shut your mouth!" Thunder snapped at him before turning towards the figure at the stone seat again "Chief!" She said "Give me another chance! I was careless, that's all! Next time I'll get that little deserter Gust for sure…"

"I'm afraid you will have to sit this next one out, Thunder…" The voice replied "I have already decided who will go after Gust next…"


	14. Sounds of problem

Chapter 14:

I quickly gathered my books, putting them back into my bag. It was now four days since the encounter with Thunder and the Alpha Gang at the museum. It was Friday again, so we had finished class early. It was only one o'clock. I walked out into the corridor with the rest of the class to get my things from my locker. As I searched for my other glove in the locker, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw John standing in front of me with a rather serious look on his face.

"Can I have a word with you, Jim?" He said. His spoke very quietly, so I had to move closer to him to actually hear what he said.

"Sure, about what?" I asked. John looked around himself.

"Not now." He murmured "Let's wait for your friends to leave…" I could hear that his voice sounded very serious, so whatever he wanted, it had to be really important…

I nodded, and pretended to still be searching for my missing glove while the others left the corridor one after another. As soon as the last one had left, I turned to John again.

"So…" He said, looking around the corridor to make sure we were really completely alone "I'll go right to the point, Jim: Have you had any further encounters with any of the…Hrm…_People_ you mentioned back at the museum ever since then?" I shook my head, taken aback by the fact that he actually wanted to ask me about that of all things. But then again, he was the only ordinary person who actually knew about my secret…

"Now that's a relief…" He said, now sounding a little calmer "Also…" He said, sounding serious again "What about your…Well…New _pet_?" He asked.

"I got her right here." I said, pointing at my bag. John gave me a confused look.

"I mean her card." I quickly explained.

"Oh! I see…" John said understandingly "But are you sure that's a good idea? What if someone finds out what you're really hiding…?"

"It's a risk I have to take!" I said resolutely "I really can't risk leaving her at home anymore after all that's happened. If either of those creeps show up while I'm not around, she'll be in big trouble! And should they show up, I need Aurora in order to protect myself and other people from them! You saw what happened at the museum…" John looked at me for a short while, and then he nodded slowly.

"I guess you're right…" He said "And with all that you've been through together, I can understand that you want to keep her safe…" I smiled gratefully at him.

"Thanks…" I said "Thanks a lot for understanding…"

"There is one more thing I need to ask you before you leave…" John said, now sounding more serious than before "Have you told your mother about all this yet?" I felt a wave of uneasiness well up inside me. Of all things he could have asked…

"Well…" I said uncertainly "Not really…" John gave me a surprised look.

"Not?" He said "Jim, I really don't think you should keep it a secret for her of all people…" He interrupted himself as the door at the end of the corridor opened up; meaning the class next to us had just finished for the day…

"Looks like we'll have to talk more about this some other time…" John murmured. And he quickly turned around and began walking towards the door at the opposite end of the corridor.

"Well, see you next week, Jim!" He called over his shoulder before closing the door behind him.

* * *

><p>As I walked back home I thought about what John had said. Should I really tell mum about what had actually happened the past two weeks…?<p>

No. Definitely not. It was bad enough should she happen to find out Aurora was actually a real, live dinosaur. But telling her I also had two groups of dangerous people after me: One who wanted to take me away to make me a part of them, and one who wouldn't doubt for a second making dinosaur food out of me in order to snatch Aurora…

_No, it's definitely better if she doesn't know…_ I thought, shaking my head _Should I tell her she'd never be able to take it…It would just be too much for her to bear…_

I thought that I would only tell her should it prove absolutely necessary…

* * *

><p>When I finally arrived home I opened the door as quietly as I could. I knew mum would leave work early today, so I quietly snuck into the hall and pulled out the DinoHolder and Aurora's card from my bag. I carefully let the card slide through the Holder, and in the next second Aurora appeared in her little form in front of me in the hall. No sooner had she appeared than she started rubbing her head against my leg, and as I bent down to pet her, she immediately began nudging me on the cheek with her head.<p>

"Take it easy, Aurora!" I said "You're acting like you haven't seen me in years!" Suddenly I heard footsteps coming from the kitchen and in the next second mum came out into the hall.

"Welcome home, Jim!" She said with a smile "Have you had a good day at school?"

"Well…I guess you could say that…" I said as I picked Aurora up in my arms. Mum looked at us and smiled again.

"I just can't get over how cute you two are together…" She said softly.

"Yeah" I said "I never thought I'd be this attached to her…" Aurora looked up at me and rubbed her head on my cheek again. I smiled and stroke her over her head.

"Speaking of…" Mum said, suddenly sounding thoughtful "I just can't seem to understand where she hides all day…She's always around in the morning and while you're home, but I can't remember seeing her before the time you've gotten home this last week…"

"Oh, she's probably hiding in my room or something…" I said with a pretended laugh "I guess she just likes peace and quiet…" Mum looked at me and smiled again.

"Well, I guess that's better than her running around the house making a mess…" She said with another smile "Now, you weren't possibly thinking of taking a walk with her, honey?" She asked, but I could tell pretty well she already knew she was right…

"Yeah, if that's okay…" I said. She just smiled at me again.

"Of course it is, dear…" She said "Just make sure to be home for dinner…"

"Don't worry, I will!" I said as I walked out through the door, closely followed by Aurora.

* * *

><p>As we walked down the street I couldn't help but noticing she seemed to walk a little closer to me than usual…<p>

I smiled. I supposed having her with me as a card all the time had made her even more affectionate, since it technically meant she was always with me, but since I couldn't let her out among other people, she probably felt even more excited over seeing me every time I released her from the card…

"_Jim…_" Aurora suddenly said, snapping me out of my thoughts "_Where are we going to go today?_"

"Well…" I said with a little smile "What do you think?"

"_Do you think we could go to the forest again?_" She said, tilting her head in a begging kind of way.

"Of course, whatever you say!" I replied, and so we turned across the street and walked towards the edge of the forest.

* * *

><p>Just like when we had ventured into the forest last week, it was once again a pleasant day for it being so late at fall. Although there was a bit of a chill in the air, the sun filtering through the trees warmed us up as we walked along the path into the forest. I decided to take a different path than the one we had walked last time, since the memories of our encounter with Blaze still ran pretty deep...<p>

Aurora seemed pretty happy with being back in the forest, and she looked around as she walked by my side, occasionally sniffing the air as she walked. After walking for a while we decided to take a break, so we both sat down by the roots of a large tree. As soon as I had sat down, Aurora placed her head on my lap, looking at me in a soothing kind of way.

"Is it just me, or have you grown cuddlier than usual this last week?" I said with a little smile.

"_Oh…_" She said and quickly removed her head from my lap "_I'm sorry…I didn't want to bother you…_" I just shook my head. Then I put my hand onto her head, gently pushing it back onto my lap.

"Don't say that." I said "You're never bothering me. I already told you: The reason I love you as much as I do is that you are the way you are, remember?" She looked at me in amazement, and then she gave me another soothing look.

"_Thanks, Jim…_" She said softly, crawling up on my lap and laid down, just like she would do when I sat by my desk studying. I smiled.

"You're welcome…" I said, stroking her back. She closed her eyes and sighted, and so I just sat there with her on my lap…

"_What was that?_" Aurora suddenly said and perked up from my lap. I gave her a confused look.

"What was what?" I asked her.

"_Just now…I think I heard something…_" She said as she looked up on me. I looked at her again.

"What was it?" I said "Is it another dinosaur?"

"_No…_" She replied slowly _"I think it's something else_..." I didn't say anything, but started to listen myself for whatever she might have heard. It felt like I had been sitting there listening for several minutes when, suddenly, I heard something as well! It wasn't very clear but as I listened more closely I was almost certain it was some kind of tones or music…

I just sat there listening, but suddenly the sound stopped. What was going on? Had there really been someone playing out here in the forest? Or was it just our imagination…? Suddenly the sound was back, and this time I heard it quite clearly. It sounded like someone playing on a guitar or a harp, or something like that…

Aurora suddenly crawled down from my lap and looked up at me.

"_Jim…What is that?_" She asked, and I noticed a clear hint of worry in her voice.

"I'm not sure…" I said slowly as I kept listening to the sound "It sounds like some sort of instrument, but who's playing out here in the forest…?" The sound just kept on going, and after what seemed like an eternity I finally rose to my feet.

"This seems strange." I said thoughtfully "Perhaps we should check it out…" And so I walked towards the sound, closely followed by Aurora.

Following the sound we moved deeper and deeper into the forest. The trees almost completely blocked out the sun now, so it was slowly getting darker the further we walked. But the sound was definitely getting clearer, meaning we were without a doubt getting closer to whatever it could be we had heard. As we pressed through an especially dense groove of trees, I noticed a stream of light through the trees right in front of me, and I could hear the sound clearly now, meaning that whatever causing those tones had to be close…

"Maybe I should put you back in your card…" I murmured to Aurora "Just in case…" She gave me a worried look in the darkness, but nodded slightly.

"_All right, if you say so..._" She said. I pulled out my DinoHolder, and pushed a button to turn her back into a card, then I quickly stuffed them both back into my pocket. _Okay…_I thought _Here goes…_ And I pushed through the trees in front of me.

I almost immediately realized I was standing in a large, open clearing. The sun was still shining above the trees, lighting up the ground. As I looked around my eyes suddenly fell on something in the other end of the clearing: In the corner of the clearing sat what appeared to be a person wearing a black hooded jacket. From the looks of things he or she was sitting on a rock while looking steadily on down the ground, strumming what looked like an oddly shaped, blue guitar. I quickly realized that whoever this was had been responsible for the sounds I and Aurora had heard.

"Excuse me…" I said as I walked closer to the person sitting on the rock "But who are you? And what are you doing out here?" The person didn't answer, but kept strumming the guitar, as if he or she hadn't heard me.

"Pardon me…" I said, louder this time as I walked even closer, now standing maybe three metres away from the person. Whoever it had been suddenly stopped playing and put the guitar down on the ground.

"What was that? " Judging from the voice it was a boy around the midst of his teens "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you…" And he looked up. I was about to say something, when I felt a chill running through me: It was his face. He was wearing a mask, made of what seemed to be some kind of shimmering blue metal; exactly like the ones I had seen Blaze and Thunder wear!

"You guys…!" I said furiously "I should have known…"

"Hey, hey, what's with the attitude?" The masked boy said, sounding very confused "All I said was that I didn't hear you, that's nothing to get angry for, is it?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" I said angrily "You're one of the Masked Knights, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. So what?" He said, once again sounding confused "I mean…Of course I am! What's that to you?"

"Um, what?" I said, now feeling slightly taken aback "Are you really one of the Masked Knights?"

"Yes…Yes I am…My name's Aqua…" He said "I mean…Do you think I'm bluffing? You better watch it, you!" I just stared at him.

"You're bizarre…" Was all I could say.

"Well…Guess I can't argue with that…" He sighted "I mean…Just who are you calling bizarre?"

"All right…" I said, not sure what to think "Just what's your deal? What are you doing here?"

"Well…I…Could you just wait a second?" He said, quickly putting his hand into his coat. I was about to pull out my DinoHolder, thinking he was about to call out his dinosaur, but to my surprise he instead pulled out what looked like a sheet of paper.

"Let's see…" He said, holding up the paper in front of his face "_If you lose control of the situation, try by all means to regain control of it, even if it means resorting to violent methods…_" Right…" He said putting the paper back into his coat "Boy, am I the wrong one for this…Can't even find that one missing Gust-guy Thunder talked about…" He sighted and slumped down on the ground.

"What are you babbling about…?" I started "Wait a minute! Thunder? Gust? So you did come to get me after all?" I said angrily.

"What?" He said "You know Thunder? And…Hold on…Are you telling me you're Gust?" He said, as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"No! I already told you all!" I said, feeling very irritated "My name is Jim!"

"Wait, so you're not Gust?" The masked boy said, now sounding confused again "Hold on…" He suddenly said "Now I remember! Blaze said you called yourself that, but you're still Gust, right? I mean…Don't think you can fool me! I know it's you, so you better get back with me, or else!"

"Forget it!" I snapped angrily.

"You don't want to?" The masked boy said, suddenly sounding disappointed "Oh, come on, Gust, come back to us…I mean…Don't think you can just say "No" and walk away! Now that I've found you, you're not going anywhere!"

"You know…Actually _I'm_ the one who found _you_…" I said.

"I know…" He sighted "I'm hopeless…I'm just not up for this…I mean…Who cares about that? Now I have you right where I want you, so prepare to fight!" And suddenly he put his hand into his coat again, pulling something out and holding it up in front of me. Just like I had expected it was a Stone just like the ones I had seen previously, and this one had a blue mark that looked like blue water drops…

"Let's see how you like this, Gust!" He said as he pulled out a card from his coat, quickly swiping it on the Stone in his hand "Here we go!" There was a blaze of blue light, and in the next second the dinosaur appeared in front of me and let out a shrilly roar: It actually looked very much like the Spinosaurus, Spiny, I had seen the Alpha Gang use, but it had no sail on it's back and it was much smaller. Its body was covered by greenish scales with dark green markings along its back. There was no doubt about it: It was a Suchomimus!

"All right, Aurora…" I murmured "Look like we'll have to…Huh?" I had just been about to slash the card to call Aurora out in her full form when my eyes had fallen on the masked boy Aqua in front of me. He had suddenly fallen down on his knees. His whole body was shaking and he was holding his arms above his head as if trying to shield himself from something…

"Hey, what are you doing?" I asked in surprise.

"Please…Don't eat me…I don't taste well at all…" He said, sounding completely terrified.

"Huh? What are you babbling about?" I asked incredulously. He looked up from the ground at me.

"What I'm babbling about?" He cried hysterically "Can't you see there's a big, scary dinosaur right in front of me? I don't want to end up dinosaur food!" I just stared at him.

"But aren't you the one who summoned it?" I said incredulously "I won't do anything unless you tell it to, right?" Suddenly he stopped shaking and quickly sat up, looking at the Suchomimus.

"Oh, that's right!" He said "Thanks for reminding me, for a moment I thought I'd get eaten…I mean…You're a fool for not running while you had the chance! Now prepare for the battle of your life!"

"Bring it on!" I said as I pulled out Aurora's card and slashed it through the DinoHolder, and in the next second Aurora appeared in her full form in front of me. She immediately spotted the Suchomimus in front of her and quickly glanced at me.

"_A Suchomimus…_" She said "_Does that mean...?_"

"Yeah." I said "Looks like this guy's one of the Masked Knights, so it seems like we'll…" My words suddenly drowned in a loud cry, and I realized the masked boy had once again fallen down on his knees while shaking wildly.

"There's another one...Please…I don't want to be eaten…I'll do anything…" He said in horror. I just stared at him.

"What is this?" I said "Just what's wrong with this guy…"

* * *

><p>"I admit I messed up during my last mission, but this…" Thunder said irritably as she walked restlessly back and forth in the dark cave "Just what is Chief thinking? Sending that comedy-relief loser Aqua of all people to capture Gust?"<p>

"I'm pretty sure he has his reasons." Blaze replied calmly where he stood leaned against the wall of the cave with his arms crossed.

"Tell me something else I already know…" Thunder snapped at him "Seriously…That loser hardly knows how to fight…He could have sent his dinosaur there alone, and it would have done just fine…"

"Just give him a chance." Blaze said "He just might surprise us."

"I'd say it's a surprise if he even finds Gust…" Thunder muttered "His best chance would be hoping to run into him by accident…" Blaze suddenly walked away from the wall of the cave and up to her.

"Maybe that's exactly what Chief's planning…" He said calmly.

"What? That Aqua's going to pull through on pure luck?" Thunder snorted.

"I think he's hoping for Gust to put Aqua in trouble." Blaze said "You of anyone should know what happens once Aqua finds himself pushed into a corner…" Thunder suddenly took a step away from him.

"Did you really have to remind me about that?" She said in a disliking kind of way "I'm still trying to forget…"


	15. Wolf in sheep's clothing

Chapter 15:

"Max! Max!" Zoe cried as she flung open the door to his room, causing him to jump in surprise were he sat on his bed, dropping the comic book he had been reading.

"Hey, hey, haven't you heard of knocking?" He said as she stepped up in front of him. She gave him an impatient look.

"Don't give me that!" She said irritably "We have to get going! It's an emergency!"

"What?" Max said, confusion written all over his face "What happened?"

"It's another Dinosaur Signal!" She said and held up her beeping DinoHolder in front of him "Haven't you noticed?" Max immediately rushed over to his bedside table, which as usual was a mess, and started rummaging through the things on it.

"I don't get it…" He said as he searched desperately for his DinoHolder "I'm sure I put it here, so why can't I…"

"I got it here, Max." A voice said from the door. Both Max and Zoe looked up, and saw Rex standing in the door, holding up Max's beeping DinoHolder.

"Wow, thanks a lot, Rex!" Max said as Rex handed it to him "Where did you find it? I always keep it here..."

"It was on the living room table…" Rex said and shrugged "You left it there when we came back from school…"

"Okay, now that that's taken care of, let's get going!" Zoe said, still sounding slightly impatient "Jim needs our help!" Rex nodded, but Max looked surprised, and glanced at his DinoHolder, immediately noticing the area displayed on the map was indeed the same as the one they had visited so many times already…

"All right, then!" He said "Let's get over there!" And they all rushed out of the room.

* * *

><p>"Okay..." I said, looking at the still shaking boy Aqua in front of me, still not sure what to think of him "Are you going to lie there all day, or are you planning to fight like you said?"<p>

"So…" He said worriedly and looked up from the ground "So that Allosaurus isn't going to eat me?" I sighted.

"Look, I can't deny I really don't like you guys…" I said "But I would never have Aurora eat another human, not even one of you Masked Knight-creeps. Matter of fact; I seriously doubt she'd do it anyways..." I gave Aurora a quick look "Right?" She resolutely shook her head.

"_Never…_" She said "_Ever since I met Jim...I could never eat a human...If I did...I could never look him in the eyes again..."_

"You wouldn't?" The masked boy said, rising back from the ground, sounding clearly relieved as he looked towards her "Now that's nice to hear…"

"Hold on!" I said, looking at him in amazement "You can understand what she says?"

"Sure" He said, sounding like it was the most obvious thing in the world "What's so odd about that?"

"Never mind…" I said, but at the same time I couldn't help but wondering: No human I had encountered since I met Aurora could understand what she said, save for me. But for some reason this guy could understand her just fine... Thinking back I also recalled Thunder showing signs of understanding what she had said during our fight with her... Could it be because of the Stones we had…? But if that was the case, why couldn't Max, Rex and Zoe understand her words…?

"All right, let's get back to it!" Aqua said, snapping me out of my thoughts "I mean…Now let's get this over with so I can bring you back with me!"

"Bring it!" I said, grasping my DinoHolder in my hand. For a moment the two of us just stood there, as Aurora and the Suchomimus glared at each other. Then, suddenly, the masked boy Aqua put his hand into his coat, and pulled out a card, quickly swiping it on the Stone in his hand.

"Here goes! Tragic Sphere!" He called. The Suchomimus suddenly began glowing in a blue light, and in the next second it shot a large stream of water from its mouth. The water seemed to stop in front of it, floating in mid-air, and suddenly it formed into a large orb of liquid. Just as I was wondering what would come next, the orb suddenly shot towards Aurora.

"Heads up! Don't let that thing hit you!" I called. Aurora quickly dashed aside while the orb was still far away from her, causing it to miss her by several metres, and it instead hit a rock on the other side of the clearing, but rather than bursting, it instead seemed to envelop it. I looked at it in amazement when, suddenly, the orb began bulging in a strange way, and suddenly it exploded, causing large amounts of water and shards of rock to fly all over the clearing.

_Man…_ I thought _This guy might be an oddball, but that Suchomimus of his sure seems just as nasty as any dinosaur we've faced so far…_

"Aw, darn, that Allosaurus is really fast." Aqua suddenly said, once again snapping me out of my thoughts "How am I supposed to hit it when it runs around like that? I mean…I have to admit that dinosaur of yours is pretty quick on its feet, but I'll get it soon enough!"

"If you think her speed's impressive, check this out!" I said, pressing the button on the DinoHolder to pull out the Razor Wind-card.

"Razor Wind! Go!" I called, swiping the card through the DinoHolder. Aurora immediately began glowing in a blue light, then she quickly whirled around and swung her tail, sending a flurry of wind blades towards the Suchomimus.

"Whoa! Look out! Incoming!" Aqua cried, but his reaction had been way too late, and the wind blades hit the Suchomimus square on, and it staggered backwards into a groove of trees, and the weight of its body caused the trees to snap as it fell backwards into them.

"Aw, man…" Aqua said as he looked from the fallen Suchomimus to Aurora, still standing ready "This is bad…How am I supposed to win like this…I mean…You think you'll win just cause you scored on blow? Dream on!"

"Drop the act already!" I said irritably "If all you can do is talk, you might as well go back to your buddies and leave us alone!" Aqua gasped, taking a step backwards, almost as if my words had frightened him "I've had just about enough of your…" Before I could finish, I suddenly heard something from the forest and turned towards the sound, and to my surprise Aqua did the same thing. I wasn't completely certain, but I was almost sure it was the sound of footsteps, and it sounded like they were quickly approaching the clearing in which we stood…

Before I had the chance to do anything I saw the trees where I had entered the clearing being pushed aside again, and…

"Max?" I said in surprise as he stepped out from the trees, and no sooner had he stepped out into the clearing in front of me than Rex and Zoe pushed trough the trees after him.

"What are you guys doing here?" I said in amazement as I and Aurora turned towards them, and I couldn't help but feeling really happy to see them.

"We picked up a Dinosaur Signal from here" Zoe said "So we assumed that you…" She stopped and I realized she had spotted the Suchomimus behind me, still struggling to stand back up.

"So that's what the DinoHolder picked up…?" She said.

"A Suchomimus!" Rex said as he stepped up beside Max and Zoe.

"Yeah, but where did it come from?" Max said and turned towards me "Who sent it out?"

"That guy…" I said, pointing towards Aqua. Max, Rex and Zoe all looked in the direction I was pointing and quickly spotted him.

"So it was the Masked Knights again, then?" Max said "Who is this one?"

"He calls himself Aqua. Like I said he's the one who sent out that Suchomimus, and he's also got what I'd guess is the Water Stone…" I said. They all looked at me.

"The Water Stone?" Zoe said "That means he too has the same Stone as the Alpha gang…"

"Oh, no, I know you guys...You're the ones who helped Gust beat Blaze…" Aqua said, sounding clearly disheartened "I'm done for…I can't possibly win now…I mean…So you chose to show up now too, huh? I'll just have to take you all on, then!" I sighted. Max, on the other hand, looked surprised at Aqua's words and Rex and Zoe both looked at him with raised eye brows as well.

"What?" Max said, sounding clearly puzzled "What was that all about?"

"Well, from the looks of things he's a bit...Well...Different from the other two I've seen so far…" I said "One moment he acts like a total wimp, next it's like he realizes how he's acting, and then he tries to acts all high and mighty…"

"That's really odd…" Zoe said "If those Masked Knights wants to get you that badly, why'd they send someone like that?"

"I don't know, maybe…" I started when, suddenly, I heard another shrilly roar, and whirled around, realizing the Suchomimus had stood back up, and it was now rushing straight towards Aurora!

"Aurora! Look out!" I cried when, suddenly, Rex stepped up in front of me.

"Don't worry, Jim, I'll help her!" He said as he pulled out his DinoHolder along with Ace's card.

"Dino Slash!" He cried, slashing the card through his DinoHolder "Carnotaurus, blow them away!" And in a blaze of blue light Ace appeared in his full form and let out a loud roar before rushing straight at the charging Suchomimus.

"Cyclone!" Rex called, swiping the card through his DinoHolder. Ace began glowing in a blue light, and just like back when he had fought Tank, a whirlwind quickly enveloped him and in the next second he rammed right into the Suchomimus. The force of the impact sent it flying right into the trees again, causing even more of them to snap and fall to the ground.

"Thanks a lot!" I said gratefully, turning towards Rex.

"Don't mention it." He said "Now let's…Huh?" I immediately realized what had caught his attention: Aqua had once again fallen down on his knees, again shivering like mad…

"Why do these things keep coming for me?" He said, sounding absolutely terrified "I don't want to end up as dinosaur food…"

"Here we go again…" I sighted. Rex on the other hand stared in surprise at Aqua, and as I turned towards Max and Zoe standing just behind us I saw they were staring as well.

"What's going on?" Rex asked me "Why's he acting like that?"

"If you want to know what I think, he's probably afraid of Ace…" I said, sighting again. They all stared at me.

"He's afraid of Ace?" Max repeated in disbelief "That can't be true! There's no way wimp like that could really be one of those Masked Knights, right?"

"Well, he said it himself: That he was afraid that Aurora would eat him right before I began fighting him…" I said. They all looked at me again, even more surprised than before.

"Okay…" Max said "And I thought the Alpha Gang was a bunch of weirdoes…"

"That's for sure…" Zoe said.

"You think that's odd?" I said with a short laugh "He was even afraid his own Suchomimus would eat him right after he sent it out…"

"Seriously?" Max said, completely in disbelief "I'd say those Masked Knight made a big miscalculation if they sent such a total coward to get you…"

"No joke. From what I've seen up till now he's more mask and no might than Masked Knight…" I said. Then I turned towards Aqua, still lying on the ground shaking.

"Would you cut that out?" I said impatiently "None of the dinosaurs here are going to eat you, so get up and stop fooling around! Stop wasting our time!"

"All right, I get it…" He said, rising to his feet again "I'll just leave…I won't bother you again…I mean…I'm not going anywhere unless I have you with me, Gust! You hear that you little traitor?"

"You know…" Max said irritably "This guy's really starting to bug me as well... Let's take him down already!" Rex and Zoe nodded, and I nodded as well.

"That's a more than welcome idea." I said, looking grimly at Aqua "Let's do it!"

"Dino Slash!" Max and Zoe cried in unison, slashing the cards through their DinoHolders.

"Triceratops! Roar!" Max cried.

"Spring up, Parasaurolophus!" Zoe cried. There was a blaze of yellow and green light, and in the next second Chomp and Paris stood beside Max and Zoe in their full forms.

"All right!" I said as Ace stepped up besides Chomp and Paris, while Aurora stepped up behind me "Let's show this guy what we got!" Max, Rex and Zoe all nodded. The Suchomimus suddenly rushed out from the trees with a loud roar. Paris quickly rushed towards it, but it was able to jump out of the way for her just in the nick of time. I looked up at Aurora, who gave me a quick look. I nodded, and she quickly rushed towards the Suchomimus. It whirled around towards her, opening up its jaws to bite her, but in the same moment it closed them Aurora quickly jumped back, causing it to bite in thin air. She then quickly whirled around, hitting the Suchomimus hard over the head with her tail, causing it to stagger backwards. Paris quickly caught on and rushed towards it from behind, slamming right into it with her whole body, and it crashed to the ground.

"A-All right…" Aqua stuttered, clearly very worried "Let's try with Tragic Sphere!" And once again he swiped the card on the Stone. The Suchomimus managed to stand back up, and once again it opened its jaws, shooting out another blast of water, and in the next second the same water-orb I had seen it use before began to form in front of it.

"Watch out!" I called "Don't let that thing hit you!"

"Don't worry! Just leave this to me! Lightning Strike!" Max called, swiping the card through his DinoHolder. Chomp began glowing in a yellow light, and then he quickly fired a burst of lightning from his horns towards the Suchomimus, who still hadn't fired the water-orb yet. The lightning hit the orb, causing the whole thing to sparkle with electricity, and then suddenly it exploded in a cascade of water. The explosion also caused a cascade of lightning sparks to rain over the Suchomimus, electrifying it and sending it shivering to the ground. Chomp the quickly charged at it, ramming it with his horns, once again sending it crashing into the trees.

"Aw, man…" Aqua said as Chomp turned towards him "I have to get out of here…" And he whirled around and began running towards the trees, but before he could reach them, Ace and Paris both rushed up in front of him, blocking his way.

"Just hold on a second!" I said as I walked towards him with Aurora following behind me "I'm sick of you creeps just vanishing before I have a chance to get any answers out of you! Now tell me! Just what is the reason you guys keep trying to get me over to your side?"

"Yeah" Max said as walked up beside me along with Rex and Zoe "And then why don't you tell us how you guys got those Stones of yours! Not to mention the Dinosaur Cards!"

"Just what do you know about them?" Rex said "Tell us everything!"

"But I…I don't…" Aqua stuttered as he fell down on his knees again "I have no idea…"

"Oh no! Don't try to trick us!" Zoe said "If you really are one of those Masked Knights you have to know something!" Aqua just kept shaking as he looked from Aurora and Chomp still standing behind me, Max, Rex and Zoe, to Ace and Paris still standing behind him to prevent him from escaping. I clenched my fists, feeling very hopeful all of a sudden: We actually had him cornered, and the Suchomimus still hadn't recovered from the last attack. From what I could tell it could very well be down for the count. As long as nothing unexpected happened this could very well be the moment in which I would finally find out the truth about all that had happened…

"Hey, what are you doing?" Max suddenly cried. I looked up and realized Aqua had put his hand into his coat again. In the next second he pulled out his hand, and in it he was holding a card. I couldn't see what kind of card it was, but suddenly I noticed that his hands seemed to be shaking more than ever as he held it up in front of himself…

"Heads up, guys!" Zoe said "I think he's up to something!" No sooner had she said it before Aqua suddenly rose to his feet, and to my surprise he faced right toward us…

"So you want to know the truth?" He said "Fine, I'll tell you…If you can beat me!"

"Didn't we already tell you to drop the tough guy-act?" Max said irritably "You know it won't work!" But as I eyed Aqua I noticed something: His hands were no longer shaking... I also thought his voice suddenly seemed deeper, more confident for some reason... And for a moment I could even have sworn there was something different about all of him: Almost like a different atmosphere...

"Hold on, Max!" I said "I don't think he's bluffing this time…" They all turned around and looked at me I surprise.

"What do you…?" Zoe started when, suddenly, Aqua's voice interrupted her, and this time I could tell for sure it was different from before: There was no trace of any fear or hesitation like before, and there also seemed to be a hint of something cold and sharp in it, and suddenly I felt a shiver going down my spine…

"Sorry I kept you waiting, but to make up for it I'll give you a taste of what I can really do…" And in the next moment he swiped the card in his hand on the Stone. A sharp, blue light suddenly appeared from the trees were the Suchomimus had landed, and suddenly there was a loud, shrilly roar, and in the next second it leaped out of the forest, positioning itself in front of Aqua.

"Very well…" Aqua said with the same cold and sharp voice "Shall we begin…?"


	16. Fighting a faker

Chapter 16:

"You know…Even if that joker Aqua was to find Gust isn't it more than likely he'll just lay down on the ground, all too scared to fight, rather than actually try to capture him?" Thunder said irritably as she turned to Blaze, still standing leaned against the wall of the cave.

"Maybe you're right…" He replied calmly.

"Now that I think about it; he might just as well be goofing off and sit playing that stupid guitar of his somewhere instead of searching!" She went on; shaking her head "You know how he is…"

"Well, there's not much we can do about it, now is it?" Blaze replied "We don't even know where he is, now do we?"

"You might not…But I do…" A dark voice said from the deepest part of the cave.

"Chief?" Thunder said in surprise as she quickly turned towards the voice "When did you…?"

"If you wish to know what is currently happening to Aqua…Take a look at this…" The dark figure suddenly moved its hand in the darkness, pulling an odd-looking device out of its clothes, throwing it onto the floor in front of the two of them.

"What's this?" Thunder asked as she leaned forward to get a closer look at the strange device now laying in front of her "Some kind of tracking device, or something?"

"You could say that…" The dark voice replied "This device allows us to trace Aqua's location thanks to the Stone he has in his possession…And it also allows us to see just how much he has progressed on his mission…" Suddenly a flash of light came from the strange device, and almost immediately what looked almost like a hole, filled with what seemed almost like a swirling mass of colour, appeared in the air above it.

"So all we have to do is look inside this…?" Thunder said, now turning her attention to the mysterious hole in front of her.

"Interesting…" Blaze said as he stepped away from the cave wall and up to the strange device. The hole suddenly vibrated slightly, and as the two of them looked into it again, they saw that it was now showing an almost perfect picture of a bright, open clearing…

"Hey…That is Aqua!" Thunder exclaimed as she looked into the hole "And Gust's there, too! But…Who are they?" She said as she spotted Max, Rex and Zoe standing right next to him.

"So they decided to show up again?" Blaze said, sounding slightly surprised "Didn't see that coming…"

"Wait, so you're saying those are the kids that came to Gust's rescue when you tried getting him back?" Thunder said and suddenly there was a taunting tone to her voice "To think that a few kids would cause you so much trouble…" Blaze just shrugged.

"Really…? Yet they didn't show up when you made an attempt for Gust…Shows how much of a threat they thought you were…" He said. She growled at him.

"What was that…?" She snapped.

"Enough, you two…" The dark voice interrupted "Let us see just what is happening…" Blaze and Thunder immediately turned towards the hovering image in front of them.

"So all four of them are going to go up against Aqua?" Thunder said sceptically "He'll be beat into a pulp in no time…"

"I'm not so sure about that…" Blaze said "Look more closely…"

"What do you…? Hey…This is odd…Aqua's not lying on the ground whimpering…From the looks of things it seems more like he's about to actually do some fighting…What's going on with him?"

"That must mean he actually did it…" The dark voice said. Both Blaze and Thunder looked towards the dark figure.

"Does that mean you…?" Thunder said, and suddenly there was a hint of worry in her voice…

"So my guess was right…" Blaze said as he once again leaned back against the wall, still watching the image floating in front of him "You actually gave him that card…Looks like we might have Gust back sooner than we planned…"

* * *

><p>"Go ahead, come at me." Aqua said as the Suchomimus stood up in front of Chomp, Ace, Paris and Aurora, once again letting out a shrilly roar "I'll show you something you've never seen before!"<p>

"Don't think you can scare us!" Max said as he took a step forward "In case you haven't noticed, we're four, and you're all on your own!"

"Yeah, don't think for a moment we'll go down easily!" Zoe said.

Despite knowing that what they said was true, I simply couldn't help but feeling uncomfortable with what was happening: Had this been just another act from Aqua's side, he would most certainly have dropped it by now: It would be pretty obvious to anyone that bluffing yourself out of this situation would be close to impossible. There was definitely something unnatural about his sudden change in attitude. The question was what…?

"I can't scare you, huh?" Aqua said, once again in the same sharp voice "Come and get me, and we'll see about that!"

"Hold on a second, Max." I said "There's something wrong. I just know it." They all looked at me.

"I kind of see what you mean…" Rex said "But do you have any idea just what it might be?"

"Not sure…" I said slowly "I just feel like there's something very wrong…Like something really bad is coming…"

"Yeah, but what?" Zoe asked. I clutched my head, not sure what to say.

"I don't know…" I said "But for some reason I really don't think we should take this guy lightly…"

"Are you going to stand there talking all day, or are you going to fight?" Aqua suddenly said "Unless, of course…You're scared…"

"All right, that's it, you asked for it! Let's go, Chomp! Electric Charge!" Max called, swiping the card. A bolt of lightning hit Chomp, electrifying him, and he rushed straight at the Suchomimus.

"No! Max, wait!" Zoe cried "Didn't you listen to what Jim said? This guy might be more dangeruous than he seems! You really shouldn't…" But before she could finish, Chomp smashed into the Suchomimus, sending a burst of electricity into it, and it crashed to the ground in front of Aqua, shivering from the shock.

"...Just charge at him..." She said.

_Something's definitely wrong…_ I thought _That was way too simple…_

"All right! That's what I'm talking about!" Max cried, clenching his fist in triumph as he turned to Aqua "Looks like you're not getting "Gust" anytime soon! Let's just hear what you have to tell us about the Stones and the Masked Knights already!" Aqua just turned towards the fallen dinosaur, and then, without warning, he started laughing out loud.

"I must have missed the joke…" Max said irritably.

"The joke's on you..." Aqua said, as his laugh died down to a chuckle.

"What do you mean by that?" Zoe asked as she stepped forward towards him.

"You're about to find out!" He replied, still with the same sharp voice. Suddenly I felt something on my back and turned around. I quickly realized it had been Aurora gently pushing on me with her nose, as if trying to get my attention.

"_Jim..._"She said "_I think I heard something…There's something out there…_" I looked at her in surprise.

"What do you…?" I started, but before I could finish there was a loud noise coming from behind us, and in the next second something came rushing out from the forest, heading straight for Chomp. Chomp still had his attention focused on the shivering Suchomimus lying in front of Aqua, and no sooner had the thing rushed out from the forest before it leaped right onto Chomp from behind, and he fell to the ground, roaring in pain and surprise as it began biting into his back.

"Hey, what the…?" Max said, shock and surprise written all over his face.

"Another Suchomimus!" Zoe cried in shock "But how?" I stared in shock. It really _was_ a Suchomimus! _But I saw it with my own eyes that Chomp just beat_ _it..._ I thought _How could it have recovered so fast…?_ I looked towards Aqua, but to my surprise the Suchomimus that Chomp had attacked still laid shivering by his side. What was going on? Could it actually be that he had had more than one Suchomimus, and the second one had remained hidden in the forest all this time? But in that case, why hadn't he used it back when he fought just me and Aurora. It just didn't seem to make any sense…

Suddenly the Suchomimus lying beside Aqua let out a loud roar and then...It vanished! But the strange thing is that it didn't turn back into a card: Instead it just seemed to burst in a cascade of water! I just stared at the spot where it had been, but then I suddenly realized this was definitely not the time to think about that: I had to stop the Suchomimus attacking Chomp right away.

"We have to help Chomp, Aurora! Razor Wind!" I called, swiping the card through my DinoHolder. Aurora suddenly glowed in a blue light, and then she spun around, swinging her tail, sending a flurry of wind-blades towards the Suchomimus, still biting Chomp. The wind-blades hit it straight on its back, causing it to fly off of Chomp's back and crash into the trees, and it slumped to the ground.

"Man, thanks for that!" Max said gratefully, quickly turning towards Chomp, struggling to stand back up "You totally saved him!" I smiled at him.

"Don't mention it, you would have done the same thing should…" I started, but before I could finish there was another loud noise, and in the next second yet another Suchomimus rushed out from the forest and into the clearing, but this time it wasn't alone: No sooner had it appeared before another Suchomimus rushed out right after it! Before I had any chance to respond one of them rushed straight at Aurora, ramming her in the side with its head, she roared out loud in surprise as she crashed to the ground, and it immediately clamped its jaws around her neck, pinning her against the ground. The other one rushed right at Chomp, still struggling to stand, and once again he was pushed to the ground and the Suchomimus immediately bit onto his back. At the same time the Suchomimus Aurora had knocked out before suddenly disappeared in a cascade of water, just like the previous one. I just stared. What was this? What was going on here?

"Cyclone!" Rex called, swiping the card.

"Metal Wing!" Zoe called, swiping her card as well.

Once again a tornado enveloped Ace, and he rushed straight at the Suchomimus holding Aurora pinned down, ramming right into its side. The force of the impact sent the attacking dinosaur flying right into some nearby trees, which snapped from its weight.

At the same time three Pteranodons swept down from the sky, slashing the Suchomimus attacking Chomp with its wings, and it fell crashing to the ground next to the other one.

"Thanks, guys!" Max said as he rushed up to Chomp still lying on the ground.

"Yeah, you saved us." I said, worriedly checking Aurora's neck where the Suchomimus had bitten her. There were some scratches and bruises on her neck, but luckily she didn't seem seriously injured.

"Aurora…" I murmured "Are you all right…?"

"_Don't worry, Jim…_" She said, as she rose shakily to her feet "_I'm fine…_"

"That's a relief…" I said, quickly turning towards Max "Hey, how's Chomp doing?"

"Not all too well, it seems…" Max said worriedly as Chomp struggled hard to stand back up "Looks like those Suchomimus beat him up pretty badly…"

"No need to worry, Paris can take care of that! Nature's Blessing! Restore their power!" Zoe called, swiping the card. Paris suddenly glowed in a green light, and then she sent a swirl of glowing leaves towards Chomp and Aurora. The leaves quickly enveloped them, and in the next second Chomp rose to his feet, completely restored, and the wounds on Aurora's neck quickly vanished and she instantly looked healthier.

"Great work, Zoe! You're a lifesaver!" Max said as he turned towards her.

"Yeah, thanks a lot!" I said gratefully.

"I wouldn't waste time talking if I were you!" Aqua suddenly said. I turned towards him, as Aurora stepped up behind me. Just as Max, Rex and Zoe turned towards him the two Suchomimus that Ace and Paris had knocked out before once again vanished in a cascade of water. Before anyone of us could do anything else, a loud noise once again came from the forest, and in the next second not one, but four Suchomimus rushed out from the forest! The four of them instantly positioned themselves in front of Aqua, all letting out a shrilly roar.

"Again?" Zoe said in shock "Just how many dinosaurs does this guy have?"

"It doesn't matter!" Max said resolutely "Guess we'll just have to take them all down!" And he pulled out his DinoHolder.

"Hold on!" I said "Don't just attack. Think before you act." He looked at me.

"What do you mean? Even if there's something up with this guy like you said, it's not like we have a choice, now is it?" He said impatiently.

"No, Max." Rex said "I agree with Jim. There's definitely something strange going on. Just think about it: Up till now we've been constantly attacked by those dinosaurs, but when we've been beating them, they just turned to water. Something's up, there's no doubt!"

"Yeah, but what?" Max asked.

"I'd say it's quite obvious." I said "Those dinosaurs weren't real: They were just fakes!" Max looked at me in surprise, but Rex and Zoe nodded in agreement.

"Fakes?" Max said, looking completely bewildered "But how did he…?" He said, casting a glance on Aqua.

"I don't know…" I said "But somehow he did it."

"So what should we do about it?" Zoe said uncertainly.

"One thing's definitely sure: If these dinosaurs are fakes, we can't waste time fighting them." Rex said, looking at the four Suchomimus standing in front of Aqua "It's only going to lead to Chomp, Ace, Paris and Aurora tiring themselves, and then they'll be easy prey…"

"Exactly." I said "What we need to do is find the real one. If we can beat it, that might mean he can't make any more of those fake dinosaurs."

"Okay, but how do we find the real one?" Max asked. I clenched my fist in frustration.

"I have no idea…" I said "I simply don't know…"

* * *

><p>"I just can't believe it…" Thunder said as she stared into the gap created by the strange device "It looks like Aqua's managed to push both Gust and those brats up against the wall…Aqua, of all!"<p>

"Looks like the power of that card was even greater than I thought it would be…It is even more powerful than back when I first tested it..." The dark voice said.

"Oh…" Thunder said, clenching her fists "Why does it have to be Aqua…? I should be the one taking care of that little backstabber Gust!"

"What matters isn't who brings him in…" The dark voice said, suddenly sounding very stern "It's that it gets done…"

"Hold on! I didn't mean it like that at all!" Thunder hurriedly said, taking a step away from the dark figure "I was just talking to myself! Right, Blaze?" She turned towards the wall of the cave.

"Huh? Blaze? Where are you?" She said, looking around the cave. The dark figure began moving slightly, as if it was looking around the cave as well.

"Strange…" It said "It would appear as if he is no longer here…"


	17. End of the trick

Chapter 17:

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Max said, clenching his fists in frustration "If the only way to stop these fake dinosaurs is to take down the real one, but we have no idea how to find it, we're pretty much stuck!" I nodded grimly. Things couldn't really get much worse: If we tried to fend off the seemingly endless flow of these water fake-dinosaurs, ours would eventually run out of energy and collapse, making them easy prey, just like Rex said...

"Listen, guys" Zoe said "If we are to find that real one, perhaps the first thing we should do is figure out just how and when it got away from us." Max and I turned towards her.

"Zoe's right" Rex said "If the real one's not here anymore, then that has to mean it escaped at some point during the battle, so first we should try to figure out how and when it happened." The rest of us nodded.

As I thought cast a worried look over at Aqua, still standing behind the four Suchomimus that just appeared in the clearing. For some reason he didn't seem interested in attacking us, yet it should be pretty clear he had us trapped. Was he just enjoying seeing us in a pinch? Or was he plotting something...? I forced my gaze off of him and closed my eyes, desperately trying to remember every detail of our battle so far... Trying to figure out when the real Suchomimus we first had fought might have escaped from the fight...

Suddenly it came to me.

"Hey!" I said, opening my eyes again "Don't you think it just might have escaped back when Chomp knocked it into the forest when he blocked its last attack with that Lightning Strike?" They all looked at me.

"Yeah, that's it!" Zoe said "That's got to be it! That's the only time we actually lost sight of it..."

"Yeah, but where is it now?" Max said "We still need to figure that out."

"I'd say that's pretty much obvious." Rex said "The only way it could have gotten away back then is by running off into the forest..." I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah" I said "The forests around these parts can stretch out for miles, and on top of that they're so dense they're almost impassable at some places. It would make for a perfect hideout, even for something as large as a dinosaur..." They all looked at me, nodding in agreement.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Max said "If that dinosaur's hiding somewhere around here in the forest, let's just find it and get this thing over with!"

"Max, keep your voice down..." Zoe said, casting a look over at Aqua "We can't risk letting that guy finding out we're on to him..."

"Oh, sorry..." Max said, lowering his voice "But now that we know..."

"I don't think we really know anything yet." Rex said grimly "You heard what Jim said: This forest keeps going for miles, and that dinosaur could have gone quite a bit while we where busy fighting off these fake ones..."

"First we need to figure out just where in the forest it might be" Zoe said "Cause running off blindly in order to find it won't really get us anywhere. Especially if that Masked Knight-guy tries something to stop us..."

"Just what are you whispering about?" Aqua suddenly called towards us, again with the same sharp voice "I'm starting to feel bored from waiting for you to finish your little conversation..." One of the Suchomimus took a step towards Chomp, Ace, Paris and Aurora. Luckily it quickly stepped back as Aurora let out a loud roar, but something told me all too clearly that wouldn't work forever...

I forced the thoughts out of my head and focused my mind. Out of the four of us, I was definitely the one who knew the most about the forest, so if I couldn't come up with some sort of idea where the real one could be, it could very well be the end of us all...

I tried to recall every single bit I knew about the forest, I even tried to draw up some kind of mental map in my head in order to pinpoint the places where it would be the most likely the Suchomimus was, but as much as I tried I just couldn't seem to come up with anything...

I was just about to give up when, suddenly, a though crossed my mind. _That's it _I though _That's got to be it..._

"Listen" I said, the others quickly turning towards me "I think I might know just where that dinosaur is hiding..."

"Really?" Zoe said, slightly surprised "How did you...?"

"Then where is it?" Max interrupted "Hurry up and tell so we can find it and put a stop to this fake-dinosaur Move already!" I was about to tell them of my theory when a thought once again crossed my mind, and I slowly shook my head.

"I think it's better if I go off to find it alone, the rest of you should stay here." I said. They all looked at me in shock and surprise.

"What are you talking about?" Max said incredulously "Come on, that's just crazy-talk!"

"Yeah, that sounds really dangerous!" Zoe said "There's no need for you to be the hero just because..." I shook my head again.

"It's not that..." I said quietly "It's just...If all of us run off to try and find that dinosaur, that guy" I cast a quick look towards Aqua again "Will definitely figure we're up to something. However, should I run off alone..."

"I think I get it." Rex said slowly "Since these Masked Knights seems to want you for some reason, should you run off and we stay here and look like we're trying to stop him from getting to you..."

"Exactly" I said "If you can just get me a little bit of time, and my hunch turns out to be correct, we might just be able to make it out of this mess..."

"A Diversion..." Zoe said "But that's still really dangerous...I don't know if I like it..."

"I think we should give Jim's idea a shot." Max suddenly said "Come on! We did say we'd make him one of us, so perhaps we should just trust him and let him handle this thing!" I nodded gratefully, happy that they agreed to my plan. It appeared as if Aurora had overheard our conversation, cause suddenly she turned away from Chomp, Ace and Paris and turned towards me. I hesitated again.

"Not this time" I said reluctantly "I think it would be better for you to stay here with the others..." She stared at me with a shocked look in her eyes.

"_But Jim..._" She said "_What are you saying? What if you were to end up in danger? And I weren't there to protect you..._"

"I'm sorry..." I said "It's just that...You'll be a lot safer here with the others..."

"Hold on" Max said, clearly shocked at my decision "If you don't bring Aurora, then how are you supposed to fight that Suchomimus?"

"I won't." I replied "Even if I were to find it, fighting it in this dense forest will only work to my disadvantage. If worst come to worst it might just run away and hide again, making it even harder to find again. Our best bet is if I can lure it back here, so that we can beat it together so that it won't get the chance to run off again." The all looked at me again. Aurora seemed very reluctant to agree with me, but then she nodded slowly.

"_Very well..._" She said quietly "_But Jim...Promise me that you're really careful..._" I nodded resolutely at her before turning towards Max, Rex and Zoe.

"Well?" I said. They all looked at each other, and then they all nodded.

"You got it." Max said "If anyone can do this, it's you!"

"Good luck." Zoe said.

"Sure." I said before turning to Aurora one last time "Promise you'll keep her safe..."

"Don't worry!" Max said "There's no way we'll let that jerk get either of you!"

"I've had it with waiting!" Aqua suddenly called "Ready or not! Here I come!" And in the next second the four Suchomimus standing in front of him rushed towards Chomp, Ace, Paris and Aurora. I cast one last look at them, and then I turned around and began running in the opposite direction towards the trees.

"What's this?" Aqua said "Are you trying to run away, Gust? Like that will ever happen!" One of the Suchomimus' suddenly left the others and in the corner of my eye I saw how rushed past Max and the others, aiming straight for me...

Suddenly there was a loud roar, and the Suchomimus fell crashing to the ground. From the looks of things Aurora had rushed after it, ramming it in the side of its body. I turned around towards her as I ran.

"Thanks, Aurora..." I murmured.

"_Jim...Good luck...And please be careful..._" Was the last thing I heard her say before the sounds of the battle died down as I rushed in between the trees.

* * *

><p>As I ran the forest gradually grew thicker, and at some places I was forced to slow down to a walk to get through, but I was always sure to stay moving no matter what. I knew I was getting closer to the place where I was heading: The river floating close to the mountain. No matter how much I thought about it, it was the only place I could directly figure that the Suchomimus would have headed to. Since the Suchomimus was clearly a Water-attribute dinosaur, judging from the Stone Aqua had had, it would certainly make for it to head for the nearest source of water. As I pushed through an especially dense groove of trees I suddenly heard the sound of rushing water through the trees, meaning I was almost at the river, and I was just about to speed up my steps when, suddenly, I also hear another sound coming from the very same direction, a sound I recognized: A loud, shrilly roar...<p>

I quickly began running towards the sound, and after maybe a minute the sound of water became clearer. When I was almost at the edge of the forest, next to the riverbank, I saw it through the trees: The Suchomimus stood completely still in the water of the river, facing down the stream. I slowed down, trying to move as quietly as possible through the trees, so that it wouldn't notice me, and thus I was able to move up behind it, watching it silently through the trees...

Suddenly the Suchomimus let out another shrilly roar, and in the same moment it did, it also began glowing in a deep blue colour. I was wondering just what would happen next when I suddenly realized the water in the river had began moving in a strange way: It was almost as if it had come alive all of a sudden, and was now slowly taking the form of...

In the next second there was another flash of light. It was so bright that I had to close my eyes, and as I opened them again I understood everything: Now there was another Suchomimus standing at the edge of the river, looking at the first one. The first Suchomimus suddenly let out another shrilly roar, and the other one quickly turned around and began running down the riverbank. I followed it closely with my eyes when, suddenly, it turned around and ran into the forest. This was it. This was how these fake dinosaur had appeared all of a sudden, and this was also the reason they had seemed to explode and turn into water once they got beaten. I was just thinking of way to lure it back to the clearing when, suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by a loud cracking. Without noticing it I had steeped right onto a dry branch, which immediately snapped under my foot. The Suchomimus immediately whirled around, looking straight towards me. For a moment it just seemed to be leering in my direction, I wasn't even sure if it had actually seen me, but suddenly it let out a loud, shrilly roar, and then it quickly stepped out of the river and began moving towards me. I didn't think. I just quickly turned around and began running back through the forest. I didn't need to look back to know the Suchomimus was following me: The sound of trees snapping and the thumping of its feet on the forest floor spoke all too clearly…

As I ran a terrifying though suddenly crossed my mind: Even though all the Masked Knights I had encountered so far had said they needed me to come back unharmed, I wasn't completely certain their dinosaurs would know that without their masters around to instruct them…

I shook away the thoughts, and focused all my mind on running, running as fast as I could. Running back to Max and the others. Running back to Aurora...

I pushed through another groove of trees and…

"_Jim! You're back!_" I stared in awe. I was back in the clearing. I saw Aurora turn towards me with a look of joy and relief in her eyes as the Suchomimus she had been struggling to keep away fell crashing to the ground once again, struggling to stand back up.

"Hey, Jim!" Max cried, who quickly seemed to have realized I was back as well, turning towards me along with Rex and Zoe "How did it go? Did you find…?"

"Ah! Gust! You came back!" Aqua called "So does that mean you've decided to follow me back?"

"Forget it, you jerk…" I said, or tried to say anyways; my throat and chest were still burning from the run, and I was just about to start walking towards Max and the others to tell them what had happened when, suddenly, a loud shrilly roar pierced through the air, and in the next second the Suchomimus came bursting out through the trees behind me. Ending up back in the clearing so suddenly must have made me forget that it was still on my tail. I was about to start running towards the others when I felt something hitting my back, causing me to fall hard onto the ground: The Suchomimus had given me a sharp push from behind with its front legs, and I could feel my back stinging were it had hit me. I rolled over on my back, trying to get back up and run, but before I was able to, the Suchomimus leaned in over me, opening its jaws. I froze. Just like back when I had been attacked by that Ceratosaurus back in the Jurassic period, I felt it as if my body would no longer obey me. In the corner of my eye I could see Max, Rex and Zoe. Their voices sounded so distant, but it was clear that they were calling out to Chomp, Ace and Paris that I was in danger and needed help. I could see how Aurora began running towards me. But the other four Suchomimus quickly rushed up in front of them, blocking their way. There was no way they'd be able to get to me in time. _This is it... _I thought in horror as the Suchomimus leaned in over me, its jaws wide open _This time I'm really done for..._

Suddenly a huge burst of flames shot out from the forest behind the Suchomimus, hitting it straight in the back. It let out a loud, shrilly roar, immediately stepping away from me, still engulfed by the flames. I immediately got back on my feet, quickly stepping away from it as it fell down on the ground in front of me, still surrounded by the flames. The flames slowly died down, and no sooner had they vanished before there was a flash of light and in the next second it turned back into a card. No sooner had it turned back into a card before the four Suchomimus' still fighting Chomp, Ace, Paris and Aurora all let out the same shrilly roar, and in the next second they all exploded in a cascade of water, just like all the previous ones had done. I just stared. What was that flame just now? What just happened?

"Hey, Jim, are you okay?" Max's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked up, seeing him, Rex and Zoe come running towards me, followed by Chomp, Ace, Paris and Aurora.

"Sure…I'm fine…" I said, still pretty taken aback from what had just happened "I'm…" But before I could say something else Aurora had stepped up to me and began nudging me with her nose, almost making me fall over.

"_Jim!_" She said, apparently overjoyed seeing me still in one piece "_I'm so glad you're okay…_" I was about to say something to make her calm down when, suddenly, a loud scream pierced through the air, causing all of us to turn around. I quickly realized it had been Aqua screaming. Suddenly, however, he stopped and in the next second he collapsed on the ground.

"What was that all about?" Max said as he watched the still unmoving Aqua "What just happened to him?"

"And also..." Rex suddenly said "Where did those flames come from just now?" I looked at him along with Max and Zoe when suddenly a loud roar echoed through the forest.

"Hey, what was…?" Zoe started, but before she could finish, another dinosaur suddenly stepped out through the trees into the clearing. I quickly stepped backwards, the others following, as I watched the dinosaur now standing in front of me, and a jolt of recognition suddenly ran through me: Its slender body was an intense red with dots of purple spread out across it and its head was almost entirely purple, but with red and white markings, and its jaws where filled with long, blade-like teeth…

"Albertosaurus…?" I gasped "But…"

"Hey, Gust! Long time no see!" A voice suddenly said, and in the next second a person stepped out into the clearing next to the Albertosaurus. He was wearing a long-sleeved, black coat reaching all the way down to the ground, black gloves, and a mask that seemed to be made out of red metal…

"It's you..." I said completely in awe as he bent down to pick up the Suchomimus card still lying on the ground "Blaze..."

"So you actually remember me?" He said, sounding almost amused "How flattering, I..."

"Hey!" Max suddenly shouted angrily "I remember you! What are you doing here?"

To my surprise Blaze didn't say anything. It was almost like he had flat ignored him, and suddenly he stepped right past Max, followed by the Albertosaurus, and up to the still unmoving Aqua.

"Come on, up with you." He said, shaking him by the shoulder. There was a low groan, and Aqua began to move slightly. Suddenly he sat back up, looking around wildly.

"Huh? What happened?" He said, and I almost immediately noticed a clear change in his voice: It wasn't cold and sharp anymore; as a matter of fact it now sounded a lot more like when I had first run into him; the same unsure and somewhat unstable voice "What is…Waaah!" Suddenly he screamed again, once again falling down on his knees "Please…Don't eat me…Pretty please…" Blaze just sighted.

"Well, at least now you're sounding like yourself…" He said as he pulled out the Fire-Stone from his coat, squeezing it in his hand, and in the next second the Albertosaurus turned back into a card, which he quickly stuffed back into his coat. From the looks of things Aqua soon realized the Albertosaurus had vanished and looked up again.

"Blaze?" He said, clearly surprised "Why are you here? What happened?"

"I'm the one who should be asking that question." Blaze replied "Just a few moments ago you almost had that dinosaur of yours gobble Gust up for dinner..."

"Say what?" Aqua said, now sounding completely shocked "But that's impossible! After I used that card I got from Chief I felt it like I just plump collapsed, so there's no way I could have…" Blaze just looked at him.

"I see..." He said at last "Now that's not good..."

"What do you mean?" Aqua asked worriedly.

"Never mind." Blaze replied, handing him the Suchomimus card he had picked up from the ground "Let's just…"

"Hold on!" Max said angrily "You got some explaining to do! What are you doing here?"

"Yeah, is it to get Jim to join up with you again?" Zoe said. Blaze turned around, but before he could say anything Aurora suddenly stepped up in front of me, growling threateningly at him.

"_Don't worry, Jim…_" She said at me "_I won't let these people get you…No way!_" Blaze suddenly turned and looked straight at her.

"You don't need to worry about Gust for now" He said "Since I had to knock out my partner's dinosaur, it's quite clear that the score board's not exactly pointing in my favour…" And as he spoke he let his eyes wander from Aurora to Chomp, Ace and Paris "There's nothing for me to gain from fighting a losing battle..." I didn't really know what to say.

"Well in that case" Max said impatiently "How about you stop acting all mysterious for once and tell us just why you Masked Knight-creeps are after Jim!"

"Yeah, and how about you tell us just where and how you got your hands on those Stones and cards!" Zoe said. Blaze just looked at their angry faces.

"Bet you'd like to know…" He said tauntingly before turning towards Aqua again "Let's get out of here, what do you say?" Aqua just nodded, quickly placing the Suchomimus card he had received from him back into his coat.

"Hold on!" I cried, steeping up in front of Aurora "Does this mean...You can actually understand what Aurora says?" He turned towards me.

"Yeah. What about it?" He replied.

"How come" I said, desperate to get to know the answer "How come I and you guys can understand her, but no one else can?" Blaze just looked at me.

"I already told you, Gust" He said "We're not as different as you think…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said, a jolt of irritation running through me.

"Would you come back with us, Gust?" He said "If you do I swear you'll get to know everything you want…"

"Forget it!" I shouted "And when are you going to learn: My name's not Gust, its Jim!"

"Too bad…" He said "Well, until next time, Gust…" And with those words he snapped his fingers and, just like last time, he vanished.

"Hey, Blaze! Wait for me!" Aqua cried, quickly turning towards the rock he had been sitting on when I first arrived to the clearing and picked up the blue guitar still lying on the ground. He quickly strummed it and…He was gone. There was a long silence that followed.

"Darn!" Max said as he, Rex and Zoe all returned Chomp, Ace and Paris to their cards, then slashing them again to make them appear in their small forms "I'm really getting sick of those guys! All they do is cause a lot of trouble, and then they just disappear!" I too returned Aurora to her card, slashing it again to make her appear in her small form, picking her up in my arms.

"Yeah" I said as I turned towards him, Aurora still in my arms "But at least this time they did tell us something important…"

"Really? What's that?" Max asked.

"Well, when those two spoke to each other before, that guy Aqua said something about getting that card he had used against us from some "Chief"...That must mean they got a leader…" They all looked at me.

"A leader, huh?" Rex said thoughtfully "I wonder who that could be…"

"Well, whoever it is, it must mean that's the one who's been ordering these attacks on Jim…" Zoe said "But I really still wish we knew exactly why…" Once again none of us said anything. I suddenly realized the sky was slowly turning red, meaning it was almost sunset.

"I guess I'd better get going." I said, putting aurora back down on the ground before turning towards the others "Before mum's starts wondering where I am…"

"Do you want us to follow you home?" Zoe asked. For a moment I almost thought it was a strange question coming from someone younger than me, but I quickly got over it: Out of all people I knew, they would without a doubt be the best ones to have accompany me, especially if the Masked Knights would appear to finish the job…

"Sure, why not?" I said, smiling gratefully at them. We began walking towards the trees leading out from the clearing when, suddenly, Chomp left Max's side and rushed over to the place where Blaze and Aqua had stood a moment ago, and began poking on something on the ground.

"Hey Chomp, what's wrong?" Max asked as he walked up to him "Huh? What's this?" He bent down and picked something up from the ground next to Chomp. I walked up to him along with Rex and Zoe to see what was going on.

"What is it, Max?" Zoe asked "Did you find something?"

"Yeah…" Max replied, holding something up in front of her. I quickly realized that it was a card, showing a picture of what I realized was a Dilophosaurus running quickly, leaving blurry trails behind it, and as he turned it around I also realized it had a Wind-symbol at it…

"Breakneck Blitz?" Max read on the card "Hey, you think this could be yours, Rex?" Rex looked at it, and then he shook his head.

"No, I've never seen it before…" He said.

"Hey, I think I might know where that card came from" I suddenly said "That must have been the card that guy Aqua had been ordered to give me once he had taken me back to their hideout. Guess he must have dropped it when he left..."

"Then maybe you should take it?" Max said.

"I don't know, Max…" Zoe said uncertainly "Don't you think it could be dangerous for him to carry around something that used to belong to the enemy?"

"Well, truth is that's what helped me out of that last fight at the museum…" I said, holding up the Turbo Tackle-card I had received from Blaze "So even if it's some kind of trap it might just be worth taking the risk…" Zoe looked at me for a short while, then she nodded.

"Guess that settles it." Max said with a little grin, handing me the card. I quickly put it amongst the other cards in my DinoHolder, then I turned towards them again "Shall we go then?" I asked. They all nodded. With Aurora now walking right beside me I walked back into the forest, the other following close behind.

* * *

><p>"Oh, this time you've done it, Blaze!" Thunder said in the same moment he popped up in front of her in the cave "Aqua had Gust right were we wanted him, and then you step in and stop him from completing the mission! Just whose side are you on, anyways?"<p>

"If by _right where we wanted him_ you mean right onto a dinosaur's dinner plate, then I guess you've got a point..." Blaze said mockingly.

"Don't even try it!" Thunder growled "You..." Before she was able to finish there was another pop, and Aqua appeared in front of them, shivering slightly.

"So you're both back..." The dark voice said from the stone seat in the corner of the cave.

"That's for sure!" Thunder said irritably "And this time I dare say Blaze has gone way over..."

"Be silent..." The dark voice said sharply, and Thunder immediately stopped, taking a step back "I will clear this all up myself..." And the dark figure turned towards Aqua and Blaze "Now then...Blaze...Would you now tell me why you did this...?" Blaze took a step forward, kneeling before the dark figure on the stone seat.

"I noticed something wasn't right with my companion" Blaze said, casting a quick look over his shoulder on Aqua "So I thought it would be for the best to make sure nothing happened to our prime target. That is why I stopped him..." He finished.

"Would you listen to that?" Thunder said "I've got a good mind to..." The dark figure shot her another look.

"Blaze has judged the situation much better than you..." The dark figure said as Blaze rose to his feet again "It would turn out that I made a slight miscalculation with that card..."

"What do you mean? What card?" Aqua said nervously, almost as if he had a feeling something was coming to him... The dark figure turned towards him.

"Before I gave that card to you...I had had it equipped with a special device I developed..." The dark voice said "And as soon as you decided to use that card...It instantly took command over your mind..."

"It did _what_?" Aqua shouted, completely in terror "But why, Chief? _Why?_"

"Do you need to ask?" Blaze said, once again sounding amused, but he quickly looked away from Aqua as the dark figure looked his way.

"The reason was simply due to your original personality would most certainly be a liability when battling Gust..." The dark figure said "Even more so should those children decide to show up...Which they also did..."

"But it would seem like that device almost caused him to have Gust torn into pieces, rather than brought to us in one piece." Blaze said "Guess that device wasn't such a success in the end..."

"Aqua..." The dark figure said, making him cringe in fear "Did you make sure to leave that other card behind like I ordered...?"

"Yes..." Aqua said, clearly relieved "Or perhaps you could say Blaze did it..."

"Now wait just a minute!" Thunder interrupted "To me you said not to let Gust have that card before getting him here! What's going on here?"

"There's been a change of plans..." The dark figure replied "You've both done very well..." It said, turning towards Blaze and Aqua "Although you did act outside my orders, Blaze..."

"You're one lucky bastard, do you know that?" Thunder growled at Blaze "Even when you mess up, you somehow slither out of trouble!" She immediately grew quiet as the dark figure turned towards her.

"Very well..." It said "Since you are so obviously troubled about Blaze's actions...I will let the two of you make an attempt on getting Gust back..."

"The two of us?" Thunder repeated, casting a clearly disliking look at Blaze "You mean...The two of us...As a team?"

"Do you have a problem with that...?" The dark voice said sharply.

"Of course not! It's perfectly fine!" Thunder hurriedly said, trying but failing to sound enthusiastic "I can't wait..."

"I understand." Blaze said, once again kneeling before the dark figure "We won't let you down, Chief..."


	18. Two Team encounter

Chapter 18:

With Aurora running right behind me I burst through the door, breathing heavily from the run. After our encounter with Aqua I had decided to stay inside for the rest of the weekend – I felt it like I simply couldn't stand the thought of running into any more trouble right now…

But come Sunday me and Aurora had both grown pretty restless, so I had decided to take a morning walk after all. However, after walking for just a few minutes we had been caught in a sudden heavy rainfall, and despite running back as fast as we could we had both been soaking wet once we finally returned home. As I wiped my wet hair out of my face a shivering Aurora suddenly huddled up against me, trying to catch my warmth. I quickly picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, grabbing a towel from the hanger and began wiping her dry the best I could.

Once we were done, we both went down to the living room, settling down on the couch. Aurora almost immediately crawled up on my lap. I smiled as I placed my hand on her back, stroking her scales. She closed her eyes, resting her head on my lap as I stroke her. It made me happy to see that she seemed to feel at home here in the world of humans now.

Taking my eyes off of her I looked out through the window; the rain was still falling heavily outside, the raindrops thundering against the window. I sighed. As much as I had tried it had been harder than ever to get the thoughts of the Masked Knights out of my head ever since our last encounter… Especially now that you added Aqua to the mix, since it meant there was one more to worry about now and most likely more of them still... Not to mention that mysterious leader of theirs hiding out there…

I sighed again as I looked back down on Aurora, and I immediately noticed she had fallen asleep in my lap. Seeing her lay there peacefully I smiled, and for some reason it suddenly felt like all the troublesome thoughts about the Masked Knights were mildly washed away; almost as if having her near me made me feel comforted and peaceful. I stroke her carefully over the head before leaning back in the couch, and suddenly I felt sleepy as well…

"Jim…Jim…Wake up, dear…" I opened up my eyes, seeing mum standing in front of me.

"Uuum…What…?" I said sleepily, rubbing my eyes "What is it…?"

"I didn't expect to find you two sleeping here…" She said softly, looking at Aurora still sleeping on my lap "Did something happen?"

"Well…We went on a walk…" I murmured, straightening up a bit "But then it started to rain, so…"

"I see." She said with a little smile before turning around and walking back towards the kitchen "In case you're feeling hungry, I just made some pancakes, dear…" I cast a quick look at the clock on the living room wall, and realised it was almost twelve, meaning we had been sleeping for almost three hours. At the same time I realised I was practically starving, since I and Aurora hadn't had any breakfast before heading out. I placed my hand on Aurora, gently shaking her awake. She perked up from my lap with a slightly sleepy look in her eyes. I smiled and gestured towards the kitchen. She apparently understood and quickly jumped down from the couch onto the floor, looking up at me, almost as if to tell me she was waiting. I laughed and bent down, rubbing her head. Then we both hurried out into the kitchen.

Once we had finished eating I noticed that the rain had finally stopped, so I decided to make another attempt at taking a walk with Aurora. I put on my jacket and was just about to open the door when mum came out into the hall.

"Heading out again, dear?" She asked with a little smile.

"Well, yes." I replied "It's not raining anymore…"

"That's fine…" She said as she turned around and walked back into the house "We should savour the light while it lasts…Soon we won't be able to see the sun at all…"

I sighed, opened the door and walked out of the house, closely followed by Aurora.

* * *

><p>There was a bit of a chill in the air and the ground was still wet from the rain, but walking down the street along with Aurora certainly made me feel much more at peace with things.<p>

I looked down at her as we walked, but as she looked up at me I immediately got a feeling something wasn't right; there was a clearly troubled look in her eyes…

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked worriedly.

"_Jim…What exactly did she mean…?_" She said.

"What? Who?" I said, feeling slightly confused.

"_Your mum…She said something about… That we won't be able to… See the sun again soon…_" She said.

"Oh, that…" I said, drawing a sigh of relief "Don't you worry about it. It's nothing." She gave me a worried look.

"No. Really, I mean it." I said reassuringly "That thing she said…That's just her way of reminding me it will be winter soon...And that means the Polar Night will soon be here again."

"_The Polar Night?_" Aurora repeated "_Jim…What is that?_"

I actually felt a bit silly. I had never mentioned the Polar Night for her before, now had I? Yet the way I said it, I must have made it sound like it was perfectly obvious…

Therefore as we walked down the street I explained all about how, here up north, there was a time during winter when the sun didn't rise for nearly a month. Hence the name: The Polar Night.

"_So…Does that mean it will be night…And nothing but night...__ For a whole month…?_" Aurora asked once I finished talking, clearly amazed by what I just told her.

"Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what it means." I said.

"_I see…_" She said quietly. I couldn't help but noticing she sounded a little depressed, and perhaps that wasn't so strange; who wouldn't be depressed at the thought of spending a whole month in darkness? Especially someone who had never experienced the Polar Night before in their whole life…?

"Hey, it's not all bad…" I said in an attempt to cheer her up "There are always lots of Northern Lights during the Polar Night…" She instantly perked up.

"_Really?_" She said hopefully. I smiled at her.

"Yes. Really." I said. She rubbed her head against my leg, and I leaned down to pet her. And then we kept walking down the street.

* * *

><p>I flicked absentmindedly through the pages of the book as I stared out through the classroom window. It was Wednesday, and the last class for the day was History, but our History teacher, Lisa, hadn't showed up yet. I sighed. I still couldn't believe it had been almost two weeks since the encounter with Aqua, and the fact that so much time had passed had started to make me worried. While I certainly didn't mind them having left me alone for so long, the fact that the Masked Knights hadn't come after me again for such a long time had started to make me wonder just what they might be planning...<p>

I forced the thought out of my mind as Lisa finally entered the classroom. As usual she didn't say anything, but simply walked straight up to the blackboard, where she started writing down what we were to study the upcoming weeks. I leaned down to get the notebook out of my bag to write it down, but as I reached into it I heard a muffled sound coming from it. I froze. It was my DinoHolder beeping! Luckily no one seemed to have noticed, since I had made sure to keep it wrapped in the same scarf I had used to cover it back at the museum while I was in school. Now what should I do? The holder beeping meant a dinosaur had been set free somewhere...

Without even thinking I rose from my chair and began walking towards the door.

"Jim? Where are you going?" Lisa's voice called, making me jump in surprise: The thought of the dinosaur had totally made me forget I was still in class...

"Um, school nurse…" I said quickly, unpleasently aware that rest of the class was looking at me "I've got a terrible head ache..." And I clutched my head in order to make it seem more real. Lisa just gave me a plain look, and then she promptly turned back to the blackboard.

"Fine, then." She said as she kept writing "Just make sure to take note of this…" And she nodded toward the writing on the blackboard.

"Sure!" I said as I walked towards the door without a single look at it...

After a quick look around the corridor I pulled out the DinoHolder from my bag, removing the scarf, and as I looked at the screen I got yet another shock: The location on the screen was the north of Sweded again! Not only that; but from the looks of things the signal seemed to be coming right from the forest right outside the school! For a moment I just stood there. What if it really was the Masked Knights again? If it was, there was not telling what could happen should they come here…

I didn't think anything else, but simply went to my locker, quickly taking out my jacket before hurrying through the corridor towards the entrance hall.

* * *

><p>I quickly exited the school building and immediately headed in the direction of the library. I figure it would be easier to sneak into the forest unnoticed that way, rather than walking on the road. Quickly walking past the library building I headed in amongst the trees and pulled out Aurora's card, swiping it to make her appear in her small form. She immediately looked up at me.<p>

"_Jim?_" She said "_What's going on? Why…_" She stopped, and I realised she had noticed the beeping DinoHolder still in my hand "_Is it…Another dinosaur?_"

"Yeah" I said "And it's around here, which means those Masked Knights might be up to something again…" She looked at me for a moment, and then she nodded slowly. I looked up, gazing in between the trees, but I couldn't see any movements, meaning that whatever dinosaur just appeared was still in there, which probably also meant it hadn't been able to do any actual damage yet.

I hesitated, looking at the DinoHolder in my hand. Although Max had said I was one of them now, I couldn't help but feeling that asking him, Rex and Zoe to come over to help felt like asking too much of them…And what if they were to end up in trouble because of me…? I shook my head. What was I thinking? This wasn't the time to worry about that! I clutched the DinoHolder in my hand again, and I was just about to press the communicator button when, suddenly, the screen flickered and in the next second Max's face appeared on it.

"Jim! Jim! Can you hear me? Are you there?" He called. I just stared, feeling completely stunned.

"Well...Yes…" I said. He must have hit the communicator just seconds before me…

"I was actually just about to call you..."

"So you noticed the signal as well?" He interrupted.

"Yeah" I said "That's why I was going to call you guys."

"So do you who's behind it?" He asked quickly "Is it one of those Masked Knights again?"

"I don't know yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was…" I replied grimly "We all know those creeps likes to show up wherever I go…"

"Yeah, that's for sure…" Max said darkly.

"Yeah, but the thing is..." I said quickly, determined to tell him what I wanted to say "Look, I hate to ask, but I really think I could use your help on this one, so...Do you think you guys could get over here?" Much to my surprise Max suddenly got a troubled look on his face.

"Actually…" He said "We were just about to head over to you, but I'm afraid we can't right now…"

"What? Why not?" I asked in surprise.

"Well, to tell you the truth…" Max said grimly "The teleporter… Kind of broke down a moment ago…"

"What? Broke down?" I repeated, hardly able to believe the terrible news "How? Why?"

"Well…" Max said again, now in a somewhat annoyed tone "It would appear that _someone_ spilled his coffee all over the computer controls again…"

"So how long will it take to fix it?" I asked quickly.

"Reese is working on it as we speak" Max replied "But I would guess…About an hour, maybe even two…" I didn't say anything for a while, but then I nodded slowly.

"All right, then…" I said at last.

"So…Do you think you can hold out for that long?" Max asked "We're going to do the best we can to have the teleporter running again."

"Actually it might be better if I went on ahead." I replied. Max gave me an uncertain look.

"Come on, let's just face it." I said impatiently "If this really is the work of those Masked Knights, they're probably doing this because they're after me again; they might even expect me to come."

"Yeah, I know" Max said "Isn't that all the more reason to…"

"And that means" I interrupted "Should I not turn up, they might decide to do something to draw me out…And that means anyone that would happen to get in the way would be in dig trouble…" Max just looked at me again.

"Well, I guess if you put it that way…" He said at last. There was a short pause. "We'll be there as fast as we can, so try to hold out till we get there, okay?" And in the next second the screen turned blank again. I just stood there for a while before putting the Holder back into the pocket of my jacket and turned towards Aurora.

"Well" I said "You ready?" She nodded.

"Well then…" I said, now turning towards the trees again "Let's do this!"

* * *

><p>We walked quietly along the path leading deeper into the forest. The sky had slowly begun to turn bright red, meaning it was getting close to sundown.<p>

"You better stay close to me…" I murmured to Aurora. She quickly nodded, walking closer to me without saying a word.

After walking for a while I noticed the forest opening up slightly, and in the next second we stepped out into an open clearing. I looked around. The ground of the clearing was covered with roots and moss, and there was a small hilltop sticking out of the ground. I was pretty familliar with the forest around school, since we had "used" it quite a lot during P.E. while it was still summer, but I had never been to this part of the forest...

I hesitated, looking at the DinoHolder again. Even though the signal was close, it didn't seem like it was moving. Maybe I should just stay here and try to wait for Max and the others... As long as the dinosaur didn't leave the forest there was no reason to rush right into an unnecessary battle...

In the next second I felt something crashing right into my back, making me fall face-first onto the moist ground.

_What was that? _I thought as I struggled to stand back up _What just happened…?_

"Hey, Zander! What are you doing?" A woman's voice suddenly called. I froze. _No way…It can't be..._ I thought _What are they doing here…?_

I slowly looked up from the ground. There was no mistaking it: The figure struggling to stand up from the ground in front of me was definitely familiar. And in the next moment two other familiar figures came marching out from the forest into the clearing…

"What happened, Zander?" Ed said as he walked up to him to help him back up.

"Well, I guess I must have run into a…Waah!" Before he could finish he suddenly cried out loud, and much to my terror he pointed straight at me "It's him! That kid!"

"Well what do you know…" Ursula said as she walked past both him and Ed, stopping in front of me with a most unpleasant smile on her face "Since our last encounter wasn't very far away from here, we thought we just might run into you if we followed the signal. Although I didn't really mean it literally…."

"You…" I said through gritted teeth as I quickly took a step back "What are _you _doing here…?"

"Well..." Ursula said with another unpleasant smile "We hoped that following that signal would lead us to you, or to be more precise to that Allosaurus of yours…Now where is it?" She said, looking around the clearing, and in the next second her eyes fell right onto Aurora, who quickly darted in behind me at the sight of them.

"Well what do you know! There it is!" She said with a triumphant look on her face "Now be a good boy and hand it over to us, and nobody will get hurt!"

"No way!" I said as loudly as I could, stepping up in front of Aurora "You'll never get her! Not now! Not ever!" Ursula didn't say anything, but simply took a step towards me, followed by Ed and Zander.

"Really?" She said, once again with an unpleasant look on her face "And who's going to stop us? I don't see those brats anywhere, so does that mean you'll be taking us on all by yourself?"

I bit my lip. As much as I hated to agree with them, I couldn't help but thinking that she had a point. Sure, Aurora had beaten Terry during our first fight, but that was no guarantee she'd be able to stand up to both him, Spiny and Tank all at once...

Not to mention the fact that Max and the others was very unlikely to be able to make it here in time...

I clenched my fist, pressing the button on the DinoHolder to turn Aurora back into a card, before looking straight towards the three of them.

"Oh? So you're actually planning to fight us?" Ursula said mockingly "This will be a piece of cake!"

"Shut your mouth!" I said angrily "I don't care if I have to take you on all at once! I won't let you lay your filthy hands on Auro..."

"What's the hold-up, Gust?" An irritated voice suddenly called "We didn't come all the way out here to wait while you were taking a stroll in the forest, you know!"

Once again I felt it like someone just poured a bucket of ice-cold water over me. I knew very well what kind of people that would call me that name...And that voice...I remembered it all too clearly from back at the museum...

Before I could think anything else a figure suddenly stepped out from the forest into the clearing, closely followed by another one. I quickly realised they were both wearing black coats and one of them wore a shiny red mask over its face, while the first one was wearing a mask gleaming like gold...

"You..." I said breathlessly as I stared at them in shock "Blaze...And Thunder..."

"It's good to see you again, Gust." Blaze said in a clearly pretended cheerful tone as he took a step towards me "How've you been?"

"Skip the chit-chat!" Thunder snapped at him before she quickly turned towards me "This time we're getting you back, you little sneak! Even if we have to drag you with us..."


	19. Aiding the enemy

Chapter 19:

"Hey! I remember you!" Ursula suddenly cried "You're that same brat who messed up our plans last time!"

"And who are you?" Zander said, correcting his glasses as he looked at Blaze "Her big brother or something?" Blaze turned towards them, but he didn't say anything.

"Oh, goodie…" Thunder said irritably "It's scarecrow, tubby and the old lady…The Loser Gang's back, lovely…"

"Hey! Just what do you mean Loser Gang?" Zander said angrily "And who are you calling a scarecrow?"

"Yeah, and what do you mean with…" Ed started irritably, but before he could finish, Ursula suddenly pushed both him and Zander out of the way, and I could clearly see that she was wearing the exact same expression as back when Zoe had called her "old lady" during our first encounter...

"Why you…!" She said, her voice shaking with rage "You called me an old lady just now, didn't you?"

"Yeah? What about it?" Thunder replied irritably.

"What about it?" Ursula growled furiously "In case you're not wearing that mask do hide you blindness, it should be perfectly clear to you I'm anything but and old lady!" Thunder just stared at her.

"Oh, my…" She said, and suddenly there was something clearly taunting to her voice "Such a sad thing, denial…"

"What did you just say?" Ursula growled.

"Oh, please" Thunder said mockingly "Judging from your reaction just now, it's perfectly clear that you're the type who, whenever they look at themselves in the mirror, they say something like: "_Hey! Just who is this hideous old hag? I dooon't look like thaaaat!_" I couldn't help but stifling a laugh. And for a brief moment I could have sworn I heard Ed and Zander chuckling as well…

It was quite clear Ursula didn't find Thunder's little statement funny, and she apparently also noticed Ed and Zander laughing at Thunder's comment about her, because she instantly turned around and bonked both of them hard on their heads before turning towards Thunder again, seemingly beside herself with rage.

"That's it!" She growled as she pulled out her Alpha Scanner "You've crossed the line! Alpha Slash! Blaze, Tyrannosaurus!" There was a blaze of red light as she swiped the card, and in the next second Terry appeared in front of her, letting out loud roar. Thunder just gave an irritated sigh, clearly not the least bit worried at the sight of him, as she turned towards the two of them.

"You're a real glutton for punishment, aren't you, _old lady_?" She said mockingly "Fine, in that case I'll be more than happy to be of service, and I think there's someone here just dying to help me…" No sooner had she said it before the trees right behind her snapped, and in the next moment something rushed out from the forest, stopping beside her. I immediately recognized the dinosaur now standing in front of me as the Arrhinoceratops Thunder had unleashed to destroy the museum back during our first meeting. And since it was already out of its card I quickly realised that had to be the dinosaur my DinoHolder had picked up on earlier...

"Remember my friend?" She said mockingly towards Ursula "By the way, you don' need to answer that: As lame as you may be, I doubt you've forgotten..." Judging from the look on Ursula's face she still remembered that last battle clearly, and it seemed to make her even angrier.

"Oh, I remember, all right…" She said, her voice once again shaking with rage "And this time I'll make sure you pay for both that humiliation and for you little joke just now…"

"You? Make me pay?" Thunder said sarcastically "Good luck, _old lady_! You're going to need it..."

"Really now…" Blaze suddenly said as he stepped up behind her "All this time you've been complaining about how I've been messing up everything I do, yet the first thing you do when we arrive is throw yourself head-first into a silly dispute like this?...Jeez…"

"What are you babbling about?" Thunder snapped "She asked for it! So it's not more than right to…"

"Really?" He interrupted "And who was it that told me _not to lose sight of our target, no matter who or what stands in our way_, all the time while we were heading here…?" The two of them just stared at each other for a while.

"All right, then." Thunder said at last "Why don't you deal with the old lady, then? I'll take care of those other two clowns over there" She said as she cast a quick look towards Ed and Zander "Then we can focus on our main target…" And she cast a look towards me.

"Sounds like a plan..." Blaze said plainly, and with those words he walked right past her, now standing right in front of Terry. Thunder simply turned the other way and began walking towards Ed and Zander. The Arrhinoceratops cast a final look at Terry before snorting at him, and then it promptly turned around and quickly walked after Thunder.

"Where do you think you're going, you little brat?" Ursula called after her "I'm not through with you yet! Come back here right this instant!" Thunder didn't pay her any attention, simply keeping on walking without turning around.

"Don't worry." Blaze said as he stepped up in front of her "If you're looking for a fight I think you'll find that I'll be more than capable to fill in for her…" And in the next second he pulled out the Fire Stone from his coat and before Ursula had any chance to do anything he pulled out a card from his coat, quickly swiping it over the Stone. There was a flash of red light, and in the next second the Albertosaurus appeared in front of Terry, letting out a loud roar.

"Like that puny dinosaur would stand a chance against my Terry! Volcano Burst!" She cried, swiping the card. Terry immediately began glowing in a red light, and at the same time a large mass of flames immediately began to amass in his mouth.

"So it's going be fire against fire, huh? That's fine by me!" Blaze said, still surprisingly calm "Go! Fire Cannon!" The Albertosaurus let out another loud roar as it opened its jaws, and a glowing orb of fire suddenly began to take form in its mouth. In the same moment Terry threw his head forward, releasing an intense burst of flames from his mouth, the Albertosaurus threw its head forward, releasing the fireball towards him. The two attacks collided in mid-air, and despite the that I was standing several meters away from them I could clearly feel the heat emitting from the two blasts as they collided. The force of the blast caused both Terry and the Albertosaurus to skid backwards, but while Terry almost fell over from the pressure, the Albertosaurus simply shook itself, letting out another loud roar.

"Now this is something you don't get to see every day." Blaze said, again in an almost amused tone as the Albertosaurus once again stepped up in front of him "A fight to the finish between two top predators…"

"Don't think this is over…" Ursula growled.

* * *

><p>"Well, while he deals with that bothersome old hag…" Thunder said as she stepped up in front of Ed and Zander "I think I'll pass the few minutes it will take for him to finish his job by cleaning up some trash…" From the looks of things Ed and Zander both clearly recalled the last time they had fought Thunder and her Arrhinoceratops, but unlike Ursula the memory of the fight seemed to make them more frightened than angry.<p>

"Tell you what…" Thunder said mockingly as she stopped in front of them with the Arrhinoceratops standing behind her, clearly noticing the fright on their faces "If you just move aside and let me get to that sneaky little serpent…" She cast a look past them at me "I'll pretend that we never crossed paths…What do you say?"

"No way!" Zander cried, clearly trying to hide his fear "It doesn't matter if you've beat us before! That's just all the more reason for us to stand up for the honour of the Alpha Gang!"

"Yeah!" Ed said "Whatever he said…" Thunder just looked at them.

"Pair of stupid…" She muttered "Very well, let's get this over with…"

They both looked at each other for a short while, and then they both pulled out their Alpha Scanners as well.

"Alpha Slash!" They both cried in unison, swiping the cards.

"Gush out, Spinosaurus!" Zander called.

"Shake them up, Saichania!" Ed called. And in a blaze of blue and purple light both Spiny and Tank appeared in front of them. They two of them immediately seemed to notice the Arrhinoceratops standing in front of them, and judging from the sound they made it was pretty clear this wasn't exactly a happy reunion for them…

"It's okay, Spiny!" Zander said "That brat might have got the best out of us last time, but this time we'll get her for sure!" Though it was quite clear he didn't believe in it.

Spiny cast an uncertain look at the Arrhinoceratops, but then he let out a loud roar.

"That's the spirit, Spiny! Now! Shock Wave!" Zander called, swiping the card. Spiny immediately began glowing in a blue light, and in the next second a large mass of water appeared out of nowhere, quickly starting to whirl around him.

"Pathetic." Thunder said mockingly as she reached into her coat, pulling out the same Lightning-Stone I had seen her take out during our last fight "Static Surge!" She called as she pulled out a card from her coat, swiping it over the Stone. The Arrhinoceratops immediately began glowing in a yellow light, and in the next second it fired a beam of electricity towards Spiny. The beam immediately caused the water to disperse as it hit Spiny, and he roared out loud and fell crashing to the ground, shivering from the shock.

"Uh-Oh, not good." Zander said as Spiny tried to get back up on his feet "Spiny just got squashed…"

"Guess it's up to us now…" Ed said as he turned towards Tank.

"Don't bother!" Thunder said mockingly "Crush them! Wall Smash!" She called, swiping the card over the Stone. The Arrhinoceratops immediately began glowing in whitish light, and in the next second it rushed right towards Tank. The ensuing collision sent Tank crashing right into Spiny, who just had managed to rise back up after being hit by the Static Surge-attack, causing both of them to fly into the trees behind them, which immediately snapped from their weight.

"Pathetic…" Thunder snorted as she stepped up in front of Ed and Zander, followed by the Arrhinoceratops "I can't believe I got stuck with such a worthless bunch of fools…"

My thoughts were racing in my head. What should I do now? Even though Thunder was deep in battle with Spiny and Tank, I had an unpleasant feeling that she notified every move I made, meaning there was no way for me to escape this whole thing unnoticed. I didn't dare to take my eyes off the fight in front of me, in case Thunder would seize the chance to grab me, so I couldn't possibly tell how the fight between Ursula and Blaze were going, but judging from what was happening in front of me, I had very little reason to think he wouldn't be able to handle Terry. Besides, the three of them losing the fight still meant I would have to deal with not one, but two Masked Knights this time around. And to make things worse; judging from the time that passed since our conversation, Max and the others wouldn't be able to get here for at least one more hour…

I clenched my fists in frustration. Was there really nothing I could do besides just waiting for the inevitable…?

Suddenly it came to me. There was still a chance to make it out of this jam. Although I had to admit it really wasn't the thing I would have preferred to do, even in a situation like this…

I shook my head. What was I thinking? This wasn't the time to complain about details like that. Clutching the DinoHolder still in my hand, I resolutely raised Aurora's card into the air.

"Come on, Aurora!" I cried, slashing the card "I need your help!" And in a blaze of blue light, Aurora appeared in front of me in her full form, letting out a loud roar. From the looks of things Ed, Zander and Thunder seemed completely shocked over seeing her, but I decided to pay it no mind – There were far more important things for me to do. I quickly pushed the button on the DinoHolder, extracting the Razor Wind-card.

"Let's go, Aurora! Razor Wind!" I called swiping the card. Aurora immediately began glowing in a blue light, and then she quickly whirled around and swung her tail, sending a flurry of wind-blades towards the Arrhinoceratops that had just taken a step towards Spiny and Tank. It jumped backwards at the last second, and the blades hit the ground in front of it, sending a cascade of moss and earth into the air, and I could clearly see the deep gashes in the ground where the blades had hit.

I quickly turned around towards Ed and Zander.

"Don't just stand there! Get those two back in the fight!" I called, turning towards Spiny and Tank still lying on the ground, struggling to stand back up. The two of them stared at me like they had seen a ghost.

"What are you…?" Zander said, completely stunned "Are you helping us?"

"Yeah, why would you do that?" Ed asked in amazement.

"_Jim…_" Aurora said, and I could clearly hear that there was a tone of disbelief in her voice "_Do you really think this is a good idea? Do you really think we can…?_"

"Come on, let's just face it:" I said impatiently "You know as well as I do this girl beat you pretty badly last time" I said, turning towards Ed and Zander "And in all honesty…We just barely beat her last time…" I said, now turned towards Aurora "I really don't like to admit it, but I think we all know we'll have a far better chance if we pull together…" Aurora looked at me for a while, and then she nodded slowly.

"_Well…_" She said "_I guess you're right, Jim…_"

Ed and Zander both stared at me in amazement, but then they both nodded.

"Well, I guess if you put it that way…" Zander said.

"Guess there's not much else we can do…" Ed said.

"You will have to be kidding!" Thunder said incredulously as she looked at me "It's one thing that you keep ganging up with those three brats all the time, Gust, but I never thought I'd see you team up with these losers!"

"Well, desperate times call for desperate moves…" I said, looking straight at her.

"Agreed…" Thunder said mockingly "For one to actually team up with these losers, they must truly be desperate!" Despite their apparent fear of her, I could see both Ed and Zander getting a slightly irritated look on their faces when Thunder called them "losers" again...

"Come on. Just forget about that." I said, turning towards them "All that matters is that we take this girl out as fast as we can…"

"I can't argue with that" Zander said, turning towards me "So what's the plan? Since you're the one who suggested this whole team-up thing, I assume you got one…?"

"Only one." I replied "And for it to work, I will need you two to keep her busy for a while…"

They both gave me a troubled look.

"Exactly how long is a _while_ in this case…?" Ed asked nervously, clearly not happy at the thought of having to go up against Thunder again.

"As long as you can give me." I replied shortly. The two of them looked at me again.

"If you have another idea, I'm all ears." I said. It seemed like that decided it for them.

"All right, Spiny!" Zander called as Spiny finally was able to get back on his feet "Let's help the kid out!

"Yeah, you too, Tank!" Ed called as Tank rose back up as well. The two of them looked at them once again, but then they both let out a loud roar, rushing straight towards Thunder and the Arrhinoceratops.

"Come at me as many times as you want! The result will always be the same!" Thunder called as the Arrhinoceratops quickly rushed towards the two charging dinosaurs. I turned away from them, looking up at Aurora as I pushed the button on the DinoHolder to extract a card from it.

"Are you ready?" I asked, holding up the card in front of her. She looked at it for a short while, and then she nodded.

"_Just give the word, Jim…_" She said.

"Then let's do this! Turbo Tackle!" I called, swiping the card. Aurora immediately began glowing in a blue light, but suddenly the light around her died down. I didn't move. I knew what I had to do. This was the best chance we had to defeat Thunder...

Suddenly Thunder turned straight towards me as she reached into her coat and in the next second she pulled out a card, and at the same time the Arrhinoceratops charged forward, ramming into Spiny and Tank, causing the to fall crashing to the ground again, and then it turned straight towards Aurora.

"Static Sphere!" Thunder called, quickly swiping the card over the Stone. The Arrhinoceratops immediately began glowing in a sharp, yellow light, and in the next second its horns and frill began sparkling with electricity. The electricity quickly seemed to grow even more intense, and suddenly it began to take on the appearance of a large sphere of lightning…

In that very moment Aurora shot forward at such speed I could hardly even see her, charging straight towards the Arrhinoceratops, and in the next second she slammed right into it from the front. The force of the impact once again sent a cloud of earth into the air, obscuring the view in front of us. I stared worriedly into it, looking for a sight of Aurora...

Suddenly I saw a large figure in the cloud and in the next second Aurora suddenly came walking out of the cloud towards me. She seemed a little shaky from the impact, but at least she was unhurt and in one piece.

"Aurora!" I cried joyously "Great job! You did it!" She gave me a slightly tired, but still clearly happy look.

"_Yes, Jim…_" She said softly as she bent down to rub my cheek with her nose "_Looks like we'll be safe now…_"

"Not bad." Zander said in amazement as he stared at me "To think that you had that trick up your sleeve…"

"Yeah, I would never have thought that…" Ed said, sounding equally amazed.

"You know…" I said as I turned towards them "I do have a name, remember? It's Ji…"

"Static Surge!" A voice suddenly called from within the cloud, and in the next second a beam of lightning shot out from it, hitting Aurora in the side of her body. She roared out loud as she fell crashing to the ground, shivering from the shock.

"What was that?" Ed said worriedly "What just happened?"

"No way…" I said in horror "Don't tell me…"

"Too bad for you, Gust!" The voice called, and in the next second the cloud faded completely and I saw what was in front of me: Thunder stood right in front of me along with the Arrhinoceratops, and from the looks of things it wasn't hurt at all! In the next second I understood: That last move...It must have used it in order to protect itself from my attack…

"That was a nice try, Gust!" Thunder said as she started walking towards me "But ever since you got me with that trick during our last fight, I've been preparing for the event that you would use it again…"

_Not good…_ I thought as Aurora struggled to stand up beside me and Both Ed and Zander looked at Thunder in terror _That was my most powerful attack…And if that didn't work, what will…? _


End file.
